Seven Mohave Myths. A. L. Kroeber

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664591814

Table of Contents

       INTRODUCTION

       I. CANE

       THE NARRATOR

       THE CANE NARRATIVE

       SONG SCHEME AND NARRATIVE OUTLINE

       MOVEMENT OF THE NARRATIVE

       APPARENT INCONSISTENCIES

       HANDLING OF THE PLOT

       SUPPLEMENTARY

       II. VINIMULYE-PATŠE

       THE TALE

       III. NYOHAIVA

       CIRCUMSTANCES AND NATURE OF THE STORY

       THE NYOHAIVA TALE

       THE SONG SCHEME

       IV. RAVEN

       NARRATOR'S STATEMENTS

       OUTLINE OF SONG SCHEME

       THE RAVEN STORY

       V. DEER

       DISCUSSION

       VARIATIONS IN SONG SCHEME

       WORDS OF SONGS

       THE DEER STORY

       VI. COYOTE

       CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE RECORDING

       THE TALES

       VII. MASTAMHO

       THE INFORMANT

       CONTENT OF THE MYTH

       SCHEMATIC OUTLINE

       QUALITY OF THE NARRATIVE

       MAIN NARRATIVE: MASTAMHO'S INSTITUTING.

       SUPPLEMENT: THRASHER AND MOCKINGBIRD INSTITUTE SEX LIFE

       THE LISTS OF MANUFACTURED WORDS

       APPENDIX I: MOHAVE DIRECTIONAL CIRCUITS

       APPENDIX II: MOHAVE NAMES RECURRING IN TWO OR MORE OF THE SEVEN TALES

       1. PLACE NAMES

       2. PERSONAGES, DEITIES

       3. ANIMALS

       4. KINSHIP

       5. INANIMATE

      SEVEN MOHAVE MYTHS

      BY

       A. L. KROEBER

INTRODUCTION

       Table of Contents

This paper is an endeavor to make a beginning of payment on a scholarly debt long in arrears. Between 1900 and 1910, I spent considerable time with the Mohave Indians, both in the vicinity of Needles and with visitors from there to the University. Summaries of the data recorded, and some samples of concrete detail, have been published in one place or another, most coherently in two chapters of the Handbook of California Indians in 1925. But I kept deferring presentation of the fuller data, in particular of the mythological narratives, many of which run to unusual length. The tales offered herewith comprise in bulk about half of the Mohave narrative material in my notebooks. This is exclusive of the "Great Tale" of pseudo-historical moving about and fighting of clan-like groups, my unfinished recording of which runs to about the length of the seven tales presented herewith.[1]

[1] The fragmentary beginning of one of these clan or war legends is given in Handbook, pp. 772–775.

      In quality the narratives of the Mohave resemble not only those of the other Yuman tribes of the Colorado River, but also, to a considerable extent, those of the Shoshonean Indians of southern California. The typical story of the region is not