Reviews for Folk-lore and legends, Oriental and North American Indian

The average rating for Folk-lore and legends, Oriental and North American Indian based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-07-21 00:00:00 Tony Blevins I read this as part of a reading challenge that was themed around the heavens. This was read for Aquila (the eagle). It relates 16 Native American coming of age myths/folktales, four from each of the four main geographic regions of the US. (Northeast, Southeast, Southwest and Northwest.) One of the things I learned from the author is the importance of the number four in Native cultures, and once I knew to look for it, it became easy to see in the stories. The short stories (most only a couple of pages) are told the way you'd tell a story orally, which isn't surprising. But reading something that is meant to be spoken can leave the reader a bit flat, much like reading Shakespeare's plays instead of seeing them on stage. I most enjoyed the stories that explain why animals have certain characteristics, like why crows are all black now (Cheyenne) or why gophers have dark paws (Apache). My favorite of all the stories was that of Salmon Boy aka Half Moldy Boy from the Tlingit. I also particularly enjoyed learning how Crazy Horse got his name. I suspect that most of the people who read this did so either for research purposes or for a class. It very much reminded me of a book I'd have read for one of my anthropology classes. And while that's not a bad thing, the book does have that certain "academic" tone to it that might not be super inviting. As an aside, I was supposed to be in the Grand Canyon this past week, but that didn't happen. One of the stories (Diné, Navajo) in part relates how the Grand Canyon was formed. So there's that at least.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-08-12 00:00:00 Robert Textor YA Lit class