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readr_joe's review against another edition
1.0
Mostly fine, until I discovered the appalling last section titled 'Tales Of Magic', in which the author discusses the development of shamanism in various cultures, and demonstrates grossly offensive attitudes towards most of the groups he refers to. For that reason, I would recommend that those interested in the subject avoid this text.
doriastories's review against another edition
3.0
Reading and studying 19th century collections of folktales is by turns intriguing and exasperating. This assemblage of stories is, like many of its contemporaries, of inestimable value simply due to the author-editor’s direct proximity and access to the original tellers, many of whom he identifies by name, in addition to their hometown, as well as other salient or what Leland might term “picturesque” details regarding their life and folkways.
But there is no avoiding the high-handed insufferably patronizing tone, the florid and overtly “literary” style - so at odds with the material retold - and the egregiously biased, racist and sexist world view and core beliefs that Leland brings heavily to bear upon his subject matter. It goes deeper than his casually cringe-worthy use of terms like “Red Indian”, “savage”, and “heathen”, which to him would simply have been socio-culturally accurate descriptors for his informants, for whom he expresses a sort of benevolent imperious regard.
In his introduction - always read the introduction!! - Leland lays out his “angle”, which boils down to his strongly-held certainty that much of the essential source material for the Algonquin tales he has been collecting are ultimately derived from Norse - that is to say, White European - sources. By precisely what means the Algonquins - and also the Eskimos of the far north, and the Chippewa people of the western territories - received this material from the Norse Eddas, he cannot, of course, really say, although he at various times intimates that rumors of Viking settlements in New England and eastern Canada most likely account for the introduction of their tales into the stream of Native folklore. He also asserts - and this is more attestable and likely - that some Algonquin tales may incorporate French Canadian story elements, due to their recent cross-cultural contact.
Leland can be forgiven his outlandish musings and imaginative flights of fancy regarding tale transmission between wildly disparate cultures, as this was common enough among folklorists of his time. What is less forgivable - particularly from the vantage point of our century - is his a prori assumption that Algonquin (and Eskimo and Chippewa) peoples were incapable of producing the extraordinary depth and breadth of narrative which he discovered them to be in possession of. This skepticism on his part, born out of racism and cultural imperialism, drove him to find an answer to the question of how a “Red Indian” could produce and narrate and pass down through unimaginable antiquity stories that are sophisticated, intriguing, multi-layered, by turns tragic and comic, and altogether vastly entertaining.
Sometimes, the simplest and most obvious answer is the true one. Algonquin cultures - in particular, those of the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and Micmac collected here - are most likely exactly as they seem. They are a product of - and a tribute to - the people who told them and passed them down, in much the same way that the Norse Eddas are the product of theirs. They owe little or nothing to imaginary White interlopers, and the occasional points of similarity that Leland eagerly notes and makes much of are a reminder of something essential which he failed to see: our greater shared humanity. It is this underlying equalizer which transcends boundaries of time and geography and race, which produces shared experiences and common folkloric motifs throughout the world, and inevitably makes us equals, no matter where we are from.
But there is no avoiding the high-handed insufferably patronizing tone, the florid and overtly “literary” style - so at odds with the material retold - and the egregiously biased, racist and sexist world view and core beliefs that Leland brings heavily to bear upon his subject matter. It goes deeper than his casually cringe-worthy use of terms like “Red Indian”, “savage”, and “heathen”, which to him would simply have been socio-culturally accurate descriptors for his informants, for whom he expresses a sort of benevolent imperious regard.
In his introduction - always read the introduction!! - Leland lays out his “angle”, which boils down to his strongly-held certainty that much of the essential source material for the Algonquin tales he has been collecting are ultimately derived from Norse - that is to say, White European - sources. By precisely what means the Algonquins - and also the Eskimos of the far north, and the Chippewa people of the western territories - received this material from the Norse Eddas, he cannot, of course, really say, although he at various times intimates that rumors of Viking settlements in New England and eastern Canada most likely account for the introduction of their tales into the stream of Native folklore. He also asserts - and this is more attestable and likely - that some Algonquin tales may incorporate French Canadian story elements, due to their recent cross-cultural contact.
Leland can be forgiven his outlandish musings and imaginative flights of fancy regarding tale transmission between wildly disparate cultures, as this was common enough among folklorists of his time. What is less forgivable - particularly from the vantage point of our century - is his a prori assumption that Algonquin (and Eskimo and Chippewa) peoples were incapable of producing the extraordinary depth and breadth of narrative which he discovered them to be in possession of. This skepticism on his part, born out of racism and cultural imperialism, drove him to find an answer to the question of how a “Red Indian” could produce and narrate and pass down through unimaginable antiquity stories that are sophisticated, intriguing, multi-layered, by turns tragic and comic, and altogether vastly entertaining.
Sometimes, the simplest and most obvious answer is the true one. Algonquin cultures - in particular, those of the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and Micmac collected here - are most likely exactly as they seem. They are a product of - and a tribute to - the people who told them and passed them down, in much the same way that the Norse Eddas are the product of theirs. They owe little or nothing to imaginary White interlopers, and the occasional points of similarity that Leland eagerly notes and makes much of are a reminder of something essential which he failed to see: our greater shared humanity. It is this underlying equalizer which transcends boundaries of time and geography and race, which produces shared experiences and common folkloric motifs throughout the world, and inevitably makes us equals, no matter where we are from.