| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| James N. |
Posted - August 18 2010 : 6:32:36 PM
If this title is posted elsewhere, forgive me; I thought it was SO relevant to the thrust of this forum I wanted to recommend it, with reservations. ( No pun intended! ) Titled Cannibalism, Headhunting, and Human Sacrifice in North America - A History Forgotten that about sums it up, plus of course murder, rapine, genocide, destruction of property, and a LOT of torture! ( Probably the most infamous and reported incident, that of Col. Crawford by the Delaware, is missing, perhaps because he was neither beheaded nor eaten; but other well-known period examples like Jesuit Pere Jean de Brebeuf and the chief known as "Old Britian" are here. ) The author, 80-year-old George Franklin Feldman, says he wrote it in part as a rebuttal to the response he got on a trip to see Basketmaker petroglyphs in Utah when he observed to a young lady in the group, "The Basketmakers were headhunters, you know." "Not true. American Indians were not headhunters!"; subsequently, her "history professor had reassured her that the practice of head hunting did not exist at any time in North America." This book was written in response to what Feldman referrs to as "the sanitized history surrounding Native American practices toward their enemies..."
Using a wealth of more-or-less forgotten about ( and some well-known ) accounts written over a 400-year period, Feldman details various practices across the Continent in a more-or-less circle: Starting with the Natchez and others in the Mississippi Valley, he moves to the Timuca of Florida; up through the Pawnee to the Northeast and the Iroquois and New England tribes; overland to the Chippewa; up to the Nootka and Kwakiutl of the Pacific Northwest; down through California's Yuki; before winding up in the Southeast with the Anasazi and Apache, and Southern Plains Comanche. In "fairness", instances of Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo brutality are also included.
The book, published in 2008, is somewhat uneven; it more or less concentrates on the three title topics, but goes off on a few tangents that are more about scalping, torture, and vengance than those more ethnographic title topics. He is especially detailed in the cannibalistic practices of lesser-known groups like the Nootka and Kwakiutl, whose rituals provide probably the most nauseating portions of this narrative. A lot of this truly has been "forgotten" and certainly sanitized, making this a very worthwhile read for anyone with an open mind ( and a strong stomach! ) regarding the cultural practices of those who truly founded our nation.
It's published by Alan C. Hood & Co., Chambersburg, Pa., list price $20 paperbound; but I found it for a fraction of that on a discontinued book list. Amazon lists it for $15, and starting "New and Used" at around $10. |
|
![The Mohican Board! [Bumppo's Redux!]](images/wwwboard.gif "The Mohican Board! [Bumppo's Redux!]")
