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Loading... The Sea-Ringed World: Sacred Stories of the Americasby Maria Garcia Esperon
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I loved reading these stories. Almost all of them were new to me, not just in the ways the stories unfolded, but in the cosmologies they represent. But I wish the book had been organized differently. The stories are shuffled together, irrespective of origin, so it's difficult to get a sense for what the Nahua or the Taino or the Andean peoples believe. Instead, the details of each pantheon of gods or heroic figures or creation tales all blend together. And if I hoped to pick up some of the pronunciation for each people's sacred figures? That proved time-consuming and frustrating as the book bounced from one language to another. Along the same lines, while there's a thorough pronunciation guide in the backmatter, none of the cultures are given pronunciations. And while the glossary does an excellent job of defining and instructing on pronunciation for the gods, heroes, and monsters in the stories, it doesn't bother defining anything else, even when those unknown words aren't given much context in the stories, themselves. There are also several cultures which receive very little attention in the book—mostly those in North America—and when I checked the bibliography, there weren't many sources listed that might allow me to explore those cultures further. A Recommended Reading section would've been really helpful, especially if those books had been vetted by the experts listed in the "special thanks." I'm glad books like this are getting published more and more regularly, but they're still pretty thin on the ground, and this one was not as satisfying or enlightening as I hoped it would be. My mind feels stuffed with new stories, but I don't really have a sense of who those stories represent or how those people might have seen, or still see, the world. no reviews | add a review
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History.
Juvenile Nonfiction.
Multi-Cultural.
Sociology.
HTML:Fifteen thousand years before Europeans stepped foot in the Americas, people had already spread from tip to tip and coast to coast. Like all humans, these Native Americans sought to understand their place in the universe, the nature of their relationship with the divine, and the origin of the world into which their ancestors had emerged. The answers lay in their sacred stories. Author María García Esperón, illustrator Amanda Mijangos, and translator David Bowles have gifted us a treasure. Their talents have woven this collection of stories from nations and cultures across our two continents—the Sea-Ringed World, as the Aztecs called it—from the edge of Argentina all the way up to Alaska. The Em Querido list seeks to introduce the finest books in translation from around the world to an American audience. We feel lucky to be bringing you this book on our inaugural list, which we hope will be a true window and mirror. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresNo genres Melvil Decimal System (DDC)398.2097Social sciences Customs, Etiquette, Folklore Folklore Folk literature History, geographic treatment, biography North American folktalesLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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accessible work, Garcia Esperón conveys in lush language the sacred tales that uncover the heart of these two
continents. Mijangos's striking art, rendered in a limited palette, will mesmerize.