Recommended by a friend who is a professor of anthropology and history. I found this very readable and engaging. A great way to learn the history and culture of these people. The author did his research and did speak to the fact that he is a white man writing about an indigenous culture. I would be curious to hear what descendants of these folks think of the book. I will share this with my Mama. I know she will like it. ( )

Allows you to walk around in the Bay Area before the White man came and stole it all away, ruining it in the process. A unique book that gives the reader a new perspective. Gets one to thinking about how things might have been... ( )

Although this was required reading, I enjoyed it despite having neutral interest in the subject. The book covers all the aspects of Ohlone lives that I needed to know. It discusses their subsistence without agriculture (acorns, grass seeds, fruits, and fish, shellfish, game). It covers social and cultural practices such as coming of age, marriage, childbirth, funerals, as well as day-to-day life activities such as going to the sweat house and basket-weaving. It also has coverage of the spiritual beliefs and practices. The book ends with a short overview of the accidental genocide of the Ohlone, along with the other Native Americans in California, at the hands of the Spanish missions of California.

One star off for the point of view and style of writing, which are both very Berkeley, 1970s. I don't disagree with the view, but I found some of the metaphors and stylistic choices a little distracting and dated.

It was perhaps most interesting to me to learn about the Ohlone's relationship with the same land I live on. I would recommend this to anyone who lives in or has interest in the area or is interested in the topic. ( )

Reviewed March 2006

Second time reading this book, I really need to reread it every few years as it has so much information about this area. Margolin started with the question, “what was life in the Bay Area like before the coming of the Europeans?” I think I got this book when taking CA history at Hartnell, maybe this should be required reading in Junior High? Nothing is more relevant to students living in the area but to know about the peoples living in the area before. I was very interested to note that the Ohlone’s belief in the supernatural and animism, “served in place of a formal code of laws.” This kept people at peace, healthy an not overpopulated. Taboos worked as determents as well as not over hunting and showing respect for people, places and things. Also amazing is that these people have no history, “no sense of years, no long genealogies, no history by which they could measure or even conceive of the passage of time.” They were unable to mention the dead or even think about their ancestors in any specific sense. Lastly the author sums up what eventually happens to the Ohlone culture, “replaced by a civilization technologically more advanced than theirs, but in many respects ecologically, socially and spiritually more backward.”
4-2006 ( )