Bows (IO tradition)/Yankton sociology (fwd)

[Michael Mccafferty]

On Mon, 23 Jul 2001, Koontz John E wrote:

> Unlurking very much appreciated. The comment on the irregularity of the
> second term *ahta or *a?ta is interesting, as this is the one that
> resembled PI *a?ta? that the Blair Rudes suggested was regular in
> Iroquoian.

This could well be a borrowing that could have diffused, according to the
distribution of PA *ahta- ~ *a?ta-  in Algonquian terms for 'bow' you
find it along the East Coast and in the Western Great Lakes (Ojibwe and
Miami-Illinois),


(and it is an **old** morpheme in Miami-Illinois as attested by the Jesuit
sources from around the turn of the 18th century; in other words, it's not
a late borrowing from, say, Unami)


it could have diffused both to the east and to the west from an (several)
Iroquoian population(s) lying between the Algonquians. This notion jibes,
of course, with the general Algonquian-Iroquian population distribution
model for late prehistory. In addition, there is good evidence of positive
Iroquian-Algonquian interaction in the area southwest of the Lake Erie,
where exchange of ideas, technology, and language could/would have
occurred. The archaeologist Bob McCullough has discovered this and written
about it. I'll have to find the sources for those interested. It appears
that present-day central, southeast and northern Indiana was, say, an
"interaction zone," where peoples from various cultural backgrounds and
languages lived cheek to jowl and, lacking any evidence of warfare
thusfar, were pretty much getting along.

Drawing back from this particular focus, it seems wise to consider the
possibility that the bow was invented in more than one place. Time out of
mind people have been attaching cordage to wood.

One question I have, does anyone know the poundage that native bows have?

Best,

Michael McCafferty

>
> On Mon, 23 Jul 2001, David Costa wrote:
>
> > Hello all...
> >
> > As a Lurking Algonquianist, I felt obliged to correct some of the Algonquian
> > forms given previously. I should warn people that the Proto-Algonquian
> > dictionary is not the most dependable place to get Algonquian data, for
> > either proto-forms or daughter language cognates. The daughter language data
> > is only as good as the original source from which it was taken.
> >
> > I apologize if this is redundant by now, or if the interested parties
> > already have all these forms. I can't recall how much of this data has
> > already been given here, but since I had it at hand... (These are all
> > phonemic forms.)
> >
> > (? = glottal stop, 'E' = front mid lax vowel, @ = schwa)
> >
> > P.A. *me?tekwa:pyi 'bow, bowstring' (*me?tekw- 'tree, wood' + -a:py-
> > 'string, cord')
> >
> > Miami-Illinois mihte(h)ko:pa, mihte(h)kwa:pa 'bow', mihte(h)kwa:pinti,
> > mihte(h)ko:pinti 'bowstring'; also old Illinois mihtekwi & Miami mihtehki
> > 'forest, timber, wood'
> >
> > Shawnee mtekwa, pl. mtekwa:pali 'gun' [very likely the pre-contact word for
> > 'bow', obviously], mtekwa:piti 'bowstring', and hilenahkwi 'bow'; also
> > mhtekwi 'tree'
> >
> > Ojibwe mitigwa:b 'bow', mitig 'tree'
> >
> > Potawatomi mt at gwap 'bow', mt at g 'tree'
> >
> > Fox mehtekwa (archaic) & mehtekwanwi (modern) 'arrow', mehtekwi 'tree,
> > wood'; mehtekwa:pi 'bowstring' & mehte:ha 'bow'; Kickapoo mehte:ha 'bow'
> >
> > Menominee nemE:?tek 'my bow' (animate; as an inanimate noun mE?tek this
> > means 'wood') & mE?tekuap 'bowstring, bow'
> >
> > Cheyenne ma?tahke 'bow'
> >
> > Arapaho bê:té? 'bow' & be:téyo:k 'bowstring'.
> >
> > Another cognate set is exemplified by Ojibwe acha:b 'bowstring', Unami
> > Delaware hatá:p:i 'bow ', and the Miami-Illinois alternates ne:htia:pa
> > 'bow' & ne:htia:pinti 'bowstring'. As I think has been mentioned, tho, this
> > etymon is mostly found in Eastern Algonquian, along the Atlantic Coast. I
> > haven't give those forms since I figure Maliseet and Unquachog aren't very
> > plausible candidates for Siouan loans. :-) Incidentally, the etymon doesn't
> > reconstruct cleanly. The consonant clusters line up rather poorly.
> >
> > Thanks for your patience. Anyway, back to my lurking. :-)
> >
> > best,
> >
> > David Costa
> >
>
>


Michael McCafferty
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Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
47405
mmccaffe at indiana.edu