Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Die Lenape und ihre Legenden
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love Native American history, folklore and the early study of anthropology, and anyone curious about Pennsylvania and the Delaware valley.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
The Lenâpé and Their Legends was published in 1885 by Daniel G. Brinton, an American physician who became one of the leading students of Native American languages and lore. The Lenâpé are the people whom Europeans called the Delaware. Their homeland lay along the Delaware River, across what is now New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and parts of New York. Brinton wanted to set down what was known of their history, their customs, their language and their beliefs, and to put before English readers a long native record called the Walam Olum.
The book gives you three things. First, a portrait of a nation from its first meetings with Dutch, Swedish and English settlers to its long removal westward. Second, a look at how the Lenâpé spoke of the world, its makers and its spirits. Third, a case study in how scholars of the nineteenth century handled evidence, one that later readers have argued over fiercely. Let us begin with who the Lenâpé were and where Brinton found them.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1The Lenâpé were an old and respected nationFree
- 2Settlers, missionaries and treaties changed everything
- 3Removal scattered a nation across a continent
- 4Beliefs centered on a Creator and many spirits
- 5The Walam Olum claims to record the people's past
- 6Later scholars doubt the old record
Punkt 1 von 6
The Lenâpé were an old and respected nation
Brinton begins with the name. Lenâpé, he explains, is the people's own word for themselves, and it is often rendered as the common or ordinary people. Europeans called them Delaware after the river, which took its name from an English colonial governor. Brinton wants the reader to use the native name and to see the nation on its own terms.
The Lenâpé spoke a language of the Algonquian family, the same large family as the tongues of many peoples of the Northeast and the Great Lakes. Brinton, who was a trained linguist, pays close attention to words and to how they are built. He notes the dialects spoken in different parts of the homeland. The best known are Munsee in the north and Unami in the south, and he treats them as clues to how the people lived and spread.
He also reports that neighboring Algonquian nations spoke of the Lenâpé as grandfathers. This was a title of honor. It meant that many peoples looked to them as the oldest branch of the family, and Brinton takes the title seriously as evidence of their standing. The Lenâpé were not a small tribe at the edge of events. In their own region they were a center of respect.
Brinton describes the lands where they lived, the rivers and the shore, and the bands that held them. He writes that the people were organized in groups often linked with the Turtle, the Turkey and the Wolf. These emblems marked divisions of the nation, and they return again in the legends. Already the reader can see how Brinton works. He moves from names to language to social order, and builds the setting before he tells a single story.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Questions about Die Lenape und ihre Legenden
What is The Lenâpé and Their Legends about?
It is a study of the Lenâpé, also called the Delaware, covering their history, language, customs and beliefs. It also prints and translates the Walam Olum, a long poem said to record their origin and migrations.
What is the Walam Olum?
The Walam Olum, meaning red score or painted tally, is a poem with picture signs said to tell of creation, a flood and a long migration. It reached scholars through Constantine Rafinesque and is now widely doubted.
Is the Walam Olum real or a hoax?
Brinton believed it was authentic. Since the late twentieth century, many scholars have judged it most likely a nineteenth-century creation by Rafinesque. The original tablets are lost, so the question cannot be fully settled.
Who are the Lenâpé or Delaware people?
They are an Algonquian speaking nation whose homeland lay along the Delaware River in present New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York. Today their descendants live in Oklahoma, Ontario, Wisconsin and other places.
Is The Lenâpé and Their Legends hard to read?
No. Brinton builds the setting first, moving from the people's name to their language to their groups, before he tells a single story. The history follows the Lenâpé from settlers to removal, and the Walam Olum opens with creation.