Caddo Sun Accounts across Time and Place

Autor/in	Gerona, Carla
Titel	Caddo Sun Accounts across Time and Place
Quelle	In: American Indian Quarterly, 36 (2012) 3, S.348-376 (29 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0095-182X
Schlagwörter	Tribes; Mythology; Change; American Indian Culture; American Indian History + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Tribal society; Stammesgesellschaft; Mythologie; Wandel
Abstract	Billy Day, a Tunica/Biloxi, recently described the significance of the sun for Caddoan people. Day quoted an "old Caddo relative" of his who said: "I used to go outside and hold my hands up and bless myself with the sun--'a'hat.' Well, I can't do that anymore because they say we are sun worshipers. We didn't worship the sun. We worshiped what was behind it--the power behind it." Day's comments served to illustrate the centrality of the sun among ancient Caddoans, but it also hinted at change over time as well as resistance to that change. This essay uses sun accounts as a prism into Caddo history. It asks, In what ways did sun stories change over time? The author's main argument is that constructing a simple cause-and-effect transformation model does not adequately reflect Caddo history. The Caddos had more than one people, more than one sun account, more than one history, and more than one way of recording history. This article is organized around several key moments in which the Caddos shared a sun account that made it into the written records. The first part of this essay looks at a Caddo origin account, paying particular attention to the man who published the story, anthropologist George Dorsey. The second and third parts of this essay also focus on accounts that Dorsey published but do so from the perspective of his Caddo collaborators, the political leader White Bread and the medicine doctor Wing. The fourth part of this essay turns to the works of two more recent scholars, Vynola Beaver Newkumet and Howard Meredith, who wrote about the sun's origins in relation to Caddo dance. The fifth and final part goes back to the earliest known contact period to explore European descriptions of Caddo sun accounts, beginning with Francisco Casanas. All of these records represent moments in which Caddos and outsiders exchanged information, and uncovering the historical context in which people shared sun stories is as significant as the recorded words. (Contains 48 notes.) (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	University of Nebraska Press. 1111 Lincoln Mall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0630. Tel: 800-755-1105; Fax: 800-526-2617; e-mail: presswebmail@unl.edu; Web site: http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/catalog/categoryinfo.aspx?cid=163
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10