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Speaking Through the Aspens analyzes the content of thousands of arboglyphs in the mountains of Nevada and California by topic—language, politics, the Basque homeland, the sheepherd’s life, sex, and pictorial themes. In addition, author Mallea-Olaetxe has examined such sheepherder artifacts as sheep camps and bread ovens, conducted extensive interviews with former herders and sheep company personnel, and undertaken research in immigration and other records. The result is a highly original work of history—a detailed account of the lives of Basque sheepherders in the American West. For the first time, these men who contributed so much to the development of the region, many of whom went on to establish the West’s thriving Basque community, speak for themselves about their experiences. Enhanced by numerous illustrations, this book is history at its most engrossing, essential reading for scholars and anyone curious about the arboglyph phenomenon.
Thanks to DNA research, the Basques of the Pyrenees Mountains are no longer the "mystery people." Thirty-five thousand years ago, they traveled from Central Asia to Western Europe, where they still live, speaking a language unlike any other. After helping Columbus discover America, Basques spread out from the Pampas to California and beyond into the Sierra and Reno, Nevada. For a century, they were the sheepherders of the West and documented their lives in a prehistoric manner on trees. Now settled in towns, they celebrate their heritage every year with colorful costumes, dancing, weight lifting, wood chopping, and hearty food that endures in their popular restaurants.
A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American West presents a series of essays that explore the historic and contemporary cultural expressions rooted in America's western states. Offers a comprehensive approach to the wide range of cultural expressions originating in the west Focuses on the intersections, complexities, and challenges found within and between the different historical and cultural groups that define the west's various distinctive regions Addresses traditionally familiar icons and ideas about the west (such as cowboys, wide-open spaces, and violence) and their intersections with urbanization and other regional complexities Features essays written by many of the leading scholars in western American cultural studies
Download the first section from Cairns now. (Provide us with a little information and we'll send the free section directly to your inbox!) Praise for author David B. Williams: “Makes stones sing” --Kirkus Reviews “Williams’s lively mixture of hard science and piquant lore is sure to fire the readers’ curiosity” --Publisher’s Weekly *Part history, part folklore, part geology * Features charming black-and-white illustrations From meadow trails to airy mountaintops and wide open desert, cairns -- those seemingly random stacks of rocks -- are surprisingly rich in stories and meaning. For thousands of years cairns have been used by people to connect to the landscape and communicate ...
Green in early modern England did not mean what it does today; but what did it mean? Unveiling various versions and interpretations of green, this book offers a cultural history of a color that illuminates the distinctive valences greenness possessed in early modern culture. While treating green as a panacea for anything from sore eyes to sick minds, early moderns also perceived verdure as responsive to their verse, sympathetic to their sufferings, and endowed with surprising powers of animation. Author Leah Knight explores the physical and figurative potentials of green as they were understood in Renaissance England, including some that foreshadow our paradoxical dependence on and sacrifice...
Presents contributions of leading scholars to the field of orally improvised poetry. Includes papers on Hispanic and extra-Hispanic improvised poetry as well as papers in which leading practitioners of bertsolaritza studied their own poetic art and its techniques.
This collection of original articles brings together for the first time the research on graffiti from a wide range of geographical and chronological contexts, and shows how they are interpreted in fields as diverse as archaeology, art history, museum studies, and sociology.
Nevada sheep rancher Joe Juaristi spoke for years about making a trip back to the Spanish Basque Country that he left sixty years earlier, but each time the subject came up the discussion evolved into a family debate about the scope and members of the journey. Finally Joe's son, Vince, secretly resolved to organize the trip that his father wanted and needed--the two of them, traveling alone, making a quiet reunion with Joe's twin sister, who suffers from Alzheimer's, visiting other aging siblings and friends, and recounting the places that formed Joe's memories of his youth. Back to Bizkaia is part travel book, part memoir of two men exploring their mutual roots and their unique father-son bond. The narrative intertwines an engaging account of the contemporary Basque Country with Joe's experiences as an immigrant making his way in a new country and Vince's memories of growing up in a close Basque-American community in the American West. This is a book about Basques and their American families, but on another level it is every immigrant's story of return to a beloved homeland.
The complete guide to the entire Sierra NevadaThe Sierra Nevada is one of the most scenic, biologically diverse, and historically rich mountain ranges in North America. Touring the Sierra Nevada covers the entire range and its adjacent regions, exploring the Sierra Nevada from such world-famous sites as Lake Tahoe and Yosemite to picturesque mining towns, scenic alpine lakes, lush vineyards, and colorful hidden byways. Koehler offers suggestions for long tours and exciting daytrips, as well as detailed information about the history, geology, flora and fauna, economy, and unique features of places along the way. The book is illustrated with photographs and maps of the regions she describes. K...
At one time, more than one million sheep roamed the grassy areas of Arizona. Herding sheep was a critical component of the economy, building Arizona from its early territorial days into statehood. Fortunes were made, and, during economic downturns and other disasters, some lost everything. By the 1890s, sheepherding was a major enterprise in Arizona. Today, just over 180,000 sheep live in the state. Where Have All the Sheep Gone? details the untold story of the sheep industry in Arizona starting in the 1500s when the Spanish conquistadors began their push northward from Mexico and brought the first sheep as a food source. Arizona’s sheep industry is a rich history that has never been compr...