Legends of the American Desert: Sojourns in the Greater Southwest [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

As a confession, I didn't finish the book. I got about 3/4 through it, then discarded it, it was not worth wasting any more time reading it.

Pre-Columbian history is one of my favorite topics, so I pushed on in spite of this blundering. But on p.45 he pranced right into another pet peeve of mine, the reporting of populations of continents that had no census bureaus. He states the population of the Americas to be "fourteen million or so", at the time of Columbus' "discovery". The quotes around discovery are his, meant to display his politically correct Aboriginal American point of view. Unfortunately, if you're going to go down that road, you have to call it something other than America, because Amerigo Vespucci was European and if the Europeans didn't discover it, they certainly have no right to name it.

Editor #9 should place the word "guess" somewhere before the fourteen million. Then he or she should flip forward to p.76 where it is stated that the population in Mexico at the time of the conquest was thirty million. Not the Americas, just Mexico. If we can assume that Mexico's share of the 14 million in 1492 was 5 million, and that in just 27 years it swelled to 30 million, then Alex Shoumatoff has "discovered" the greatest pre-war baby boom in history! At the close of the fifteenth century the Mexicans were adding almost a million babies a year! Before the advent of Catholicism!

Granted, some latitude must be given when the title of a book is Legends, but perhaps Shoumatoff should give some little signal (such as italicization) when he's about to take off on his magic carpet to La-La Land. Of course, that still wouldn't give much cover to such egregious blunders as that of the snow snakes on p.44: "...perhaps eleven thousand years ago, the Bering Strait had frozen solid, creating a corridor between Alaska and Asia that enabled many forms of life to cross continents...various reptiles--frogs, snakes, including the pit viper--hopped or slithered over the bridge." Now really, are we to believe that 8 editors and the author himself don't know about cold blooded animals? What if this book were to fall into the hands of some of our nation's third graders? Would they enter the fourth grade thinking rattlesnakes slithered 12 miles across frozen ocean? Think, Alex, think!

It's a pity the book is such a mess, since there's much of interest in it. I'd always wondered where the expression "missionary position" came from, and Shoumatoff provides a plausible explanation. The saga of Clayton Lonetree was intriguing, as was the sidebar of the crass Brit who came to make a documentary about Lonetree's release from prison and the purification ceremony that followed. He was in it solely for the money, and was soundly rejected by Lonetree's family.

The whole theme of profiting from American Indians in one way or another is dealt with several times from different angles. Shoumatoff mentions how one tribal leader refuses to give out info on linguistics unless he is paid: "We don't give out that kind of information for nothing. We're wise to you guys."; to which Shoumatoff responds that he's a "great believer in the free exchange of information", a response that is a little puzzling in light of this book's $30 price tag. Perhaps it wouldn't seem inappropriate to Shoumatoff for the man to charge money for his knowledge if he gave himself the title of linguistic consultant, and had an office on the campus of a prestigious university.

One stumbles into a no man's land between capitalism and spirituality and scholarly research. There is another chapter that deals with the ferocious competition among archeologists to find the earliest human settlement in the Americas. If that tribal rep were to have his way, all the old bones and potsherds being dug up would have to be paid for, which doesn't strike me as so unreasonable. On the other hand, some tribal reps would prohibit any digging at all, and all remains currently in museums would have to be returned to the ground. On still another hand, if the digging were to go on with payments made to indigenous peoples, how would it be decided which tribe would receive the money?

What would really be interesting would be to pay the tribal rep for the info, then follow the money trail. Would he split it equally with the other members of his tribe or keep it for himself? Would he be taxed on the income if Shoumatoff were to deduct the figure from his own income as a business expense? Can the US government tax an Indian tribe? Would wholesaling relics and ruins be more profitable than bingo? Could that possibly be a way of protecting the land from profiteers who would destroy its beauty through the excessive mining and logging that is detailed elsewhere in the book?

One wonders, finally, how this relic of 19th century segregation called the reservation, which comprises a huge percentage of the American Desert, has survived to the 21st.

Pre-Columbian history is one of my favorite topics, so I pushed on in spite of this blundering. But on p.45 he pranced right into another pet peeve of mine, the reporting of populations of continents that had no census bureaus. He states the population of the Americas to be "fourteen million or so", at the time of Columbus' "discovery". The quotes around discovery are his, meant to display his politically correct Aboriginal American point of view. Unfortunately, if you're going to go down that road, you have to call it something other than America, because Amerigo Vespucci was European and if the Europeans didn't discover it, they certainly have no right to name it.

Editor #9 should place the word "guess" somewhere before the fourteen million. Then he or she should flip forward to p.76 where it is stated that the population in Mexico at the time of the conquest was thirty million. Not the Americas, just Mexico. If we can assume that Mexico's share of the 14 million in 1492 was 5 million, and that in just 27 years it swelled to 30 million, then Alex Shoumatoff has "discovered" the greatest pre-war baby boom in history! At the close of the fifteenth century the Mexicans were adding almost a million babies a year! Before the advent of Catholicism!

Granted, some latitude must be given when the title of a book is Legends, but perhaps Shoumatoff should give some little signal (such as italicization) when he's about to take off on his magic carpet to La-La Land. Of course, that still wouldn't give much cover to such egregious blunders as that of the snow snakes on p.44: "...perhaps eleven thousand years ago, the Bering Strait had frozen solid, creating a corridor between Alaska and Asia that enabled many forms of life to cross continents...various reptiles--frogs, snakes, including the pit viper--hopped or slithered over the bridge." Now really, are we to believe that 8 editors and the author himself don't know about cold blooded animals? What if this book were to fall into the hands of some of our nation's third graders? Would they enter the fourth grade thinking rattlesnakes slithered 12 miles across frozen ocean? Think, Alex, think!

It's a pity the book is such a mess, since there's much of interest in it. I'd always wondered where the expression "missionary position" came from, and Shoumatoff provides a plausible explanation. The saga of Clayton Lonetree was intriguing, as was the sidebar of the crass Brit who came to make a documentary about Lonetree's release from prison and the purification ceremony that followed. He was in it solely for the money, and was soundly rejected by Lonetree's family.

The whole theme of profiting from American Indians in one way or another is dealt with several times from different angles. Shoumatoff mentions how one tribal leader refuses to give out info on linguistics unless he is paid: "We don't give out that kind of information for nothing. We're wise to you guys."; to which Shoumatoff responds that he's a "great believer in the free exchange of information", a response that is a little puzzling in light of this book's price tag. Perhaps it wouldn't seem inappropriate to Shoumatoff for the man to charge money for his knowledge if he gave himself the title of linguistic consultant, and had an office on the campus of a prestigious university.

One stumbles into a no man's land between capitalism and spirituality and scholarly research. There is another chapter that deals with the ferocious competition among archeologists to find the earliest human settlement in the Americas. If that tribal rep were to have his way, all the old bones and potsherds being dug up would have to be paid for, which doesn't strike me as so unreasonable. On the other hand, some tribal reps would prohibit any digging at all, and all remains currently in museums would have to be returned to the ground. On still another hand, if the digging were to go on with payments made to indigenous peoples, how would it be decided which tribe would receive the money?

What would really be interesting would be to pay the tribal rep for the info, then follow the money trail. Would he split it equally with the other members of his tribe or keep it for himself? Would he be taxed on the income if Shoumatoff were to deduct the figure from his own income as a business expense? Can the US government tax an Indian tribe? Would wholesaling relics and ruins be more profitable than bingo? Could that possibly be a way of protecting the land from profiteers who would destroy its beauty through the excessive mining and logging that is detailed elsewhere in the book?

One wonders, finally, how this relic of 19th century segregation called the reservation, which comprises a huge percentage of the American Desert, has survived to the 21st.