Reviews for Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages

The average rating for Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-10-19 00:00:00 William Wake This book is the most impressive compendium I've seen on the topic of Native Californian Languages. The book approaches native Californian languages from multiple angles, and exposes us to an impressive array of primary sources. Interviews with Native Speakers, and recorded oral histories are among the tools used to help the reader understand Californian languages. This book uses an extremely holistic approach, and never falls into the common trap of confusing "Language" with "languages." Language studies and Linguistic studies are conducted. We also gain insight into various histories, myths, and other cultural significances of different aspects of the languages. Simply put, languages are complex systems and are affected by countless factors. This book takes its purpose seriously, and does an admirable job of giving you as much accessible information as it can. If I ever taught a course on Native Languages (particularly Californian) I would definitely use this as a required text.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-08-02 00:00:00 Danny Bisson This is a beautiful set of essays on the indigenous languages of California, the people who spoke them, and the people who are trying to preserve and revive them. It includes some history, some folklore, and some fascinating information about the languages themselves, including how their structure reflects distinct notions of space, time, number, and other concepts. It is shocking and sad that most of them are now extinct or moribund, and the rest are severely endangered. Growing up in New York, we didn't learn much about Native American culture in school, and nothing more than "squaw", "wampum", and "papoose" in terms of language. My children, growing up in Northern California learned a bit more about the local Native culture, including the names of local tribes, how they lived, how they prepared food, and aspects of their material culture such as basketweaving. They visit a museum of Native culture and another local site which recreates a Native Miwok village. While a local mountain and park bear a native name, all the other toponyms I can think of are of European provenance. In the east the Native toponyms are much more prevalent, from the names of states to the towns and lakes. This book made me want to learn some Californian native languages. the status of these languages when the book was written in the late 1990s.