bow (fwd)

[Koontz John E]

Having received permission from the principles, I'm posting this exchange
here on Siouan terms for 'bow'.  This is primarily an issue of
historical/etymological and archaeological interest.  My apologies to the
long suffering syntacticians on the list.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 07:12:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Michael Mccafferty <mmccaffe at indiana.edu>
To: Robert L. Rankin <rankin at lark.cc.ukans.edu>,
     Koontz John E <John.Koontz at Colorado.EDU>
Cc: pankihtamwa at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: bow

...

I've been looking at the bow and wanted to get your input. I've included
Dave in this message just to keep my linguistics in line.

There are two terms for 'bow' in the Algonquian languages. One, which
means 'wood string' --from /PA *me?tekwa:pyi/-- is found in the Great
Lakes Algonquian languages and in Cheyenne and Arapaho. (Interestingly,
it's also the basis for the term 'mulberry tree' in Miami-Illinois and
Shawnee.)

The other term, PA */ahta:pya/ (this is Ives' reconstruction. I think
others have reconstructed this with a glottal stop rather than /h/). I'm
not sure what the /aht-/ means. Dave?) This term is found in
Miami-Illinois, Ojibwe AND the Eastern Algonquian languages. It is found
in the Old Illinois sources and (apart from one small window of contact
opportunity in the form of the Eastern Algonquian Indians who accompanied
La Salle down into the Illinois Country and thus might have taught the
Ojibwe La Salle met at Green Bay and the Illinois Indians that they hung
with on the upper Illinois River) probably is, given its
farflung distribution, precontact.

What I find strange about this is that it seems to imply that the bow was
something known to speakers of Proto-Algonquian. Strange, since the bow
did not appear, as far as we know, in Illinois until after 400 A.D.
(Klunck mound, I believe) and doesn't seem to be in the Illinois-Indiana
area generally until around 600 AD, way too late for Proto-Algonquian.
(i'm not implying here that folks in Illinois and Indiana at that time
were necessarily Algonquians).

I asked Munson what he knew about the bow and he sent this:

"I don't know if anyone has tried to trace the spread of the bow into
eastern N. Am.  It was present in SW US by first centuries (or
earlier??), and a good guess, I'd think, is that it came across southern
Plains, and if that is correct, then should be earlier in Caddo area than
in Great Lakes and New England."


Another ingredient in this mix is the fact that terms for 'bow' in Siouan
come from Algonquian, which seems to turn what Munson is saying on its
head, and, at least to my peapicking mental powers, seems to imply that
the spread of the bow was north to south--Algonquians generally north of
Siouans. I wonder if the Eskimos had bows prehistorically.

So, what's my question? Or is this just a rant?

Michael