An Apache Life-way: The Economic, Social, and Religious Institutions of the Chiricahua Indians"First-class . . . in the best ethnographic tradition. It fills a great gap in our anthropological knowledge and . . . deserves to be one of the most used of American tribal records."-Ruth Benedict, author of Patterns of Culture. Originally published in 1941, An Apache Life-Way remains one of the most important and innovative studies of southwestern Native Americans, drawing upon a rich and invaluable body of data gathered by the ethnographer Morris Edward Opler during the 1930s. Blending the analysis of individual Apache lives with the analysis of their culture, this landmark study tells of the ceremonies, religious beliefs, social life, and economy of the Chiricahua Apache. Opler traces, in fascinating detail, how a person "becomes an Apache, " beginning with conception, moving through puberty rites, marriage, and the various religious, domestic, and military duties and experiences of adulthood, and concluding with the rites and beliefs surrounding death. Morris Edward Opler is Professor Emeritus of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. Charles R. Kaut is Associate Professor Emeritus of anthropology at the University of Virginia. |
Contents
CHILDHOOD | 5 |
MATURATION | 77 |
SOCIAL RELATIONS OF ADULTS | 140 |
FOLK BELIEFS MEDICAL PRACTICE AND SHAMANISM | 186 |
MAINTENANCE OF THE HOUSEHOLD | 316 |
MARITAL AND SEXUAL LIFE | 401 |
THE ROUND OF LIFE | 427 |
Antisocial Conduct | 458 |
DEATH MOURNING AND THE UNDERWORLD | 472 |
CHIRICAHUA KINSHIP SYSTEM AND TERMS | 479 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abalone animals Apache arrows asked avoidance band basket buckskin called camp cere ceremonial songs ceremony child clown cousin Coyote cure dead deer dream eagle feather Eastern Chiricahua enemy extended family father fire Fort Sill four Geronimo ghost girl girl's puberty rite give grass hide hole hoop-and-pole horse hunting husband Indians kill leader lightning live look man's marriage marry masked dancers masked-dancer meat mescal Mexicans moccasins mother Mountain Spirits never night parents parfleche person play polite form pollen pray prayers pretty raid rawhide relatives ritual round dance shaman shoot sick side sing singer sister skin smoke smoking song snake social dance someone Sometimes songs stick stories supernatural talk tell things tiswin told usually White Painted Woman wife wife's witch witchcraft women young yucca