Invisible Reality: Storytellers, Storytakers, and the Supernatural World of the Blackfeet Contributor(s): Lapier, Rosalyn R. (Author) |
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ISBN: 1496214773 ISBN-13: 9781496214775 Publisher: University of Nebraska Press OUR PRICE: $28.50 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2019 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies - Social Science | Folklore & Mythology - Religion | Ethnic & Tribal |
Dewey: 978.004 |
Series: New Visions in Native American and Indigenous Studies |
Physical Information: 0.55" H x 6" W x 9" (0.80 lbs) 246 pages |
Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Native American - Cultural Region - Western U.S. |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description:
Rosalyn R. LaPier demonstrates that Blackfeet history is incomplete without an understanding of the Blackfeet people's relationship and mode of interaction with the "invisible reality" of the supernatural world. Religious beliefs provided the Blackfeet with continuity through privations and changing times. The stories they passed to new generations and outsiders reveal the fundamental philosophy of Blackfeet existence, namely the belief that they could alter, change, or control nature to suit their needs and that they were able to do so with the assistance of supernatural allies. The Blackfeet did not believe they had to adapt to nature. They made nature adapt. Their relationship with the supernatural provided the Blackfeet with stability and made predictable the seeming unpredictability of the natural world in which they lived. Rosalyn R. LaPier is an associate professor in the environmental studies program at the University of Montana and a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History. She is the coauthor, with David R. M. Beck, of City Indian: Native American Activism in Chicago, 1893-1934 (Nebraska, 2015), winner of the 2016 Robert G. Athearn Award from the Western History Association. |