land=mother???

[Michael Mccafferty]

You might look at Charles Callendar, 1962, "Social Organization of the
Central Algonkian Indians." Publications in Anthropology 7. Milwaukee
Public Museum, Milwaukee. In Emerson's and Sasso's excellent chapter 15
titled  "Prelude to History on the Eastern Prairies" in the Smithsonian's
recent (what year?) _Societies in Eclipse, Archaeology of the Eastern
Woodlands Indians, A.D. 1400-1700_, ed., Brose, Cowan and Mainfort,
they seem to suggest an Oneata cultural pattern expressed in
"...patrilineal clans organized into earth and sky moieties."

I'm not sure if this is useful to your research, but maybe.

Michael McCafferty


 On Wed, 21 Aug 2002, R. Rankin wrote:

> I can't think of anything in Siouan or Muskogean
> languages that would approach this.  There are several
> senses of Earth, of course.  The notion of "Mother
> Earth" (and "Father Sky") seems to be central to a lot
> of early Indo-European religious thinking.  The
> concepts are discussed in some detail in that book on
> Indo-European by Mallory.  If you need the
> bibliographic information, I have it at the office.
>
> My recollection is that some of the Southeastern tribes
> had very definite ideas of land ownership.  The best
> sources to consult on those groups would probably be
> the large compendia published by the Bureau of American
> Ethnology by John R. Swanton, but I have no specific
> references to send you to.
>
> Bob Rankin
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Catherine Rudin/HU/AC/WSC <CaRudin1 at wsc.edu>
> To: <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
> Cc: Randy Bertolas/SS/AC/WSC <raberto1 at wsc.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 1:13 PM
> Subject: land=mother???
>
>
> >
> > A colleague here at Wayne State is writing something
> about Native American
> > vs. European views of "the land" and asked me if any
> Native American
> > languages have a word for land that means/is derived
> from "mother" (or
> > presumably vice versa).  I said not to my knowledge
> but I'd ask around a
> > bit.    So....  Anyone know of any such thing in
> Siouan?   Or elsewhere?
> > He'd probably be interested in any other metaphorical
> ways of refering to
> > land too, and anything that indicates land conceived
> of as a possession (or
> > not).
> >
> > I'll forward anything interesting to him, or if you
> "reply to all" he
> > should get it.  Thanks,
> > Catherine
> >
> >
>
>
>


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

"When you eventually see through the veils to how things really are, you
will keep saying again and again, "This is certainly not like we thought
it was".

--Rumi