Chickasaw Society And Religion

by Swanton, John Reed

• ISBN13: 9780803293496
• ISBN10: 0803293496
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

Summary

View the Table of Contenets Chickasaw Society and Religionbrings back into print one of the most important ethnographic sources on Chickasaw Indian society and culture ever produced, making it available to a new generation of students and scholars. The Smithsonian Institution ethnologist John Swanton published his work on the Chickasaws in 1928 as part of the Forty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and, like Swanton's many other works on Southeastern Indians, it has remained one of the primary sources for scholars and students of Chickasaw and Southeastern Indian culture. Swanton combed printed and archival documents in constructing a picture of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Chickasaw life. Swanton's keen eye for detail and his impressive knowledge of Southeastern Indian cultures make this study the starting point for all Chickasaw scholarship. Swanton broaches topics as diverse as Chickasaw marriage patterns, naming, government, education, gender roles, subsistence, religion, burial customs, and medicine. He also displays an intimate understanding of Chickasaw language throughout the essay that will aid future researchers. A linguist and ethnographer, John R. Swanton (18731958) was the editor ofAmerican Anthropologist, president of the American Anthropological Association, and an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences. Greg O'Brien is an associate professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is the author ofChoctaws in a Revolutionary Age, published by the University of Nebraska Press.

Author Biography

A linguist and ethnographer, John R. Swanton (1873–1958) was the editor of American Anthropologist, president of the American Anthropological Association, and an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences. Greg O'Brien is an associate professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is the author of Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, published by the University of Nebraska Press.

Table of Contents

List of figures	vi
Foreword	vii
Introduction	1	(1)
Origin legends	2	(6)
Terms of relationship	8	(7)
Birth relationships	8	(2)
Marriage relationships	10	(1)
Further notes on the terms used by a woman	11	(1)
Supplementary terms	11	(4)
Personal names	15	(3)
Social organization	18	(23)
Government	41	(3)
Property rights	44	(1)
Crime and punishment	44	(4)
Regulations regarding women	48	(1)
Childbirth and education of children	49	(4)
Marriage customs	53	(3)
Division of labor between the sexes	56	(1)
Burial customs	57	(6)
War customs	63	(5)
Hunting	68	(2)
Games	70	(3)
Measures and intercommunication	73	(2)
Religious beliefs in general	75	(8)
The fate of souls	83	(2)
Dances	85	(1)
The Pishofa ceremony	86	(5)
Doctoring and medicines	91	(10)
Bibliography	101	(2)
Index	103