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Inhabiting the Sierra Madre Occidental of southwestern Chihuahua in Mexico, the Tarahumara (or Rar‡muri) are known in their language as the "foot runners" due to the way in which they must navigate their rugged terrain. This book offers an accessible ethnography of their history, customs, and current life, accompanied by photographs that offer striking images of these gentle people. The subtitle of the book derives from the Tarahumar's belief that the soul works at night while the body sleeps and that during this "day of the moon" both the spirits of the dead and the souls of the living move about in their mysterious ways. As the authors observe, the fact that "so many men, women, and children persist in distinctive, centuries-old cultural traditions in spite of their nearness to all the complexities and attractions of modern industrial society is an importatn part of the story." Their book tells that story and brings readers closer to understanding the Tarahumara world and way of life.
An appreciation of the Tohono O'odham (long known as the Papago) Indians, whose reservation is the second largest in the United States. "Fontana, who has lived at the edge of the Tohono O'odham (formerly Papago) Reservation for decades, provides sympathetic insight into the history and lifeways of these gentle desert dwellers. Schaefer's photographs, many of them portraits, add timeliness and immediate presence." --Books of the Southwest "An unsurpassed insight into the Papago world, past and present." --Arizona Highways
It rises suddenly out of the Sonoran Desert landscape, towering over the tallest tree or cactus, a commanding building with a sensuous dome, elliptical vaults, and sturdy bell towers. There is nothing else like it around, nor does it seem there should be. This incongruity of setting is what strikes first-time visitors to Mission San Xavier del Bac. This great church is of another place and another time, while its beauty is universal and timeless. Mission San Xavier del Bac is a two-century-old Spanish church in southern Arizona located just a few miles from downtown Tucson, a metropolis of more than half a million people in the American Southwest. A National Historic Landmark since 1963, the...
"The careful reconstruction of the September 1, 1857 battle at Maricopa Wells, combined with the thorough and well-written summary of available information on patterns of regional conflict, makes this book a valuable contribution to the ethnohistory of the middle Gila and Lower Colorado River area." --American Anthropologist "Rarely do the skills of historians and anthropologists mesh so admirably." --Western Historical Quarterly "Kroeber and Fontana are meticulous professionals. Their study of this neglected slice of Southwestern history deserves applause." --Evan S. Connell, Los Angeles Times Book Review "A rich feast for the curious and theorist alike." --Pacific Historical Review "Kroeber and Fontana describe a little-known event, provide an effective analysis of the cultures of Indian groups in southwestern Arizona, and attempt to understand the broader causes of warfare. The result is an interesting and provocative study." --Journal of American History
Born in Sonora in 1868 to a Mexican mother and a German father, Federico Ronstadt was the quintessential borderman. He came to Arizona Territory as a young man to learn a trade and eventually became an American citizen; but with many relatives on both sides of the border, Federico was equally at home in Mexico and in his adopted country. Writing proudly of his Mexican and American heritages, Ronstadt offers readers an extraordinary portrait of the Arizona-Mexico borderlands during the late nineteenth century. His memoirs provide a richness of detail and insight unmatched by traditional histories, relating such scenarios as the hardships of Yaqui hardrock miners working under primitive condit...
South of the border, a spectacular range of ancient volcanoes rises from the desert floor just a few miles from the Sea of Cortez. Virtually untraveled, the Sierra Pinacate in northwestern Mexico beckons adventurers and scientists. Here, in words and pictures, is a remarkable introduction to this place of almost surreal beauty. Sometimes veiled in clouds or dust storms, the Pinacate have long been shrouded in mystery as well. From prehistoric times until today, people of Sonora have told tales of giants, men and animals, bottomless pits, endless tunnels, hostile Indians, smoking caverns, and ever-present dangers found in the Pinacate. This book takes readers deep into the heart of this fasci...
When William John McGee set out from Washington, D.C., for the Sonoran Desert in 1894, he was inspired by a passion for adventure as much as a thirst for knowledge. McGee lived in an era when discovery was made through travel rather than study, and reputations were forged by going where no outsiders had gone before. A self-taught scientist in the newly forming field of anthropology, McGee led two expeditions through southern Arizona and northern Sonora for the Bureau of American Ethnology. There he conducted ethnographic research among the Papagos (Tohono O'odham) and the Seris, and his subsequent publication The Seri Indians helped secure his place in the anthropological community. McGee's ...
Stockel examines the brutal history of forced conversion and subjection of the Chiricahua Apaches by Spanish priests during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Twilight of the Mission Frontier examines the long process of mission decline in Sonora, Mexico after the Jesuit expulsion in 1767. By reassessing the mission crisis paradigm—which speaks of a growing internal crisis leading to the secularization of the missions in the early nineteenth century—new light is shed on how demographic, cultural, economic, and institutional variables modified life in the Franciscan missions in Sonora. During the late eighteenth century, forms of interaction between Sonoran indigenous groups and Spanish settlers grew in complexity and intensity, due in part to the implementation of reform-minded Bourbon policies which envisioned a more secular, productive, and modern society. At the same time, new forms of what this book identifies as pluriethnic mobility also emerged. Franciscan missionaries and mission residents deployed diverse strategies to cope with these changes and results varied from region to region, depending on such factors as the missionaries' backgrounds, Indian responses to mission life, local economic arrangements, and cultural exchanges between Indians and Spaniards.
This definitive study of shamanic theory and practice was developed through a four-person collaboration: three Tohono O'odham Indians--a shaman, a translator, and a trained linguist--and a non-Indian explicator. It provides an in-depth examination of the Piman philosophy of sickness as well as an introduction to the world view of an entire people.