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Original Essays | October 17, 2009

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1 Burnside Ornithology- General Ornithology and Birding
18 Local Warehouse Native North American- General Native North American Studies
4 Remote Warehouse Native North American- General Native North American Studies

Spirits of the Air: Birds and American Indians in the South (Environmental History and the American South)

by Shepard Krech III

Spirits of the Air: Birds and American Indians in the South (Environmental History and the American South) Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Before the massive environmental change wrought by the European colonization of the South, hundreds of species of birds filled the region's flyways in immeasurable numbers. Before disease, war, and displacement altered the South's earliest human landscape, Native Americans hunted and ate birds and made tools and weapons from their beaks, bones, and talons. More significant to Shepard Krech III, Indians adorned themselves with feathers, invoked avian powers in ceremonies and dances, and incorporated bird imagery on pottery, carvings, and jewelry.

Krech, a renowned authority on Native American interactions with nature, reveals as never before the omnipresence of birds in Native American life. From the time of the earliest known renderings of winged creatures in stone and earthworks through the nineteenth century, when Native southerners took part in decimating bird species with highly valued, fashionable plumage, Spirits of the Air examines the complex and changeable influences of birds on the Native American worldview.

We learn of birds for which places and people were named; birds common in iconography and oral traditions; birds important in ritual and healing; and birds feared for their links to witches and other malevolent forces. Still other birds had no meaning for Native Americans. Krech shows us these invisible animals too, enriching our understanding of both the Indian-bird dynamic and the incredible diversity of winged life once found in the South. A crowning work drawing on Krech's distinguished career in anthropology and natural history, Spirits of the Air recovers vanished worlds and shows us our own anew.

Product Details

ISBN:
9780820328157
Subtitle:
Birds & American Indians in the South
Author:
Krech Iii, Shepard
Author:
Krech III, Shepard
Author:
Krech, Shepard, III
Publisher:
University of Georgia Press
Subject:
Birds
Subject:
Antiquities
Subject:
United States - State & Local - General
Subject:
Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies
Subject:
Native American
Subject:
Birds & Birdwatching - General
Subject:
United States - State & Local - South
Subject:
Indians of North America -- Southern States.
Subject:
Southern States Antiquities.
Series:
Environmental History and the American South
Publication Date:
March 2009
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
264
Dimensions:
11.28x8.32x1.11 in. 3.22 lbs.

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