It’s best to begin by stating that Wonderley’s current book is not for everyone. However, if you are a folklorist and interested in comparing stories or combining folklore with material culture analysis, then this book is right up your alley. I had to make great strides in accepting what Wonderley has to say about First Nations cultures, specifically Iroquois cultures. It is not that he says anything off-base, but I had some difficulty accepting many of his inferences, which I hope to highlight throughout this review. Much of what he says makes a lot of sense. For example, Wonderley states that folktales and myths show us the things a group of people share, but they also can provide us with clues as to what makes that collective culturally distinctive (xiv). He uses this idea to proceed with his research on Iroquoian and other northeastern Nations.
At this point, I will briefly go through some of the more interesting chapters. Chapter 1 compares Iroquois star stories. Most of these stories revolve around the Pleiades and the Big Dipper. The references to the different stories are redundant, though the versions are short. For the Iroquois, the stories reflect a deep connection to group identity. In chapter 2 Wonderley examines versions of the Kahkwa War. He reviews several accounts of the Kahkwa War, looking at two different takes on the meaning of the war. For example, the Seneca storytellers focused on how, prior to the war, the Seneca were victimized by the previous occupiers of the land, the Kahkwas, and their victory cemented a legitimate land claim to western New York. The Tuscarora tell a similar story, but focus on an Iroquois queen who maintained a “peace house” on the present-day reservation. According to Wonderley, these retellings inform us that these stories created a space and legitimacy for the importance that the Seneca and the Tuscarora attach to their presence in the Confederacy and in New York. Additionally, the narratives link the past to the present. In chapter 3, the author performs another comparative study on the occurrence of “monster lizard” stories. Wonderley believes that all of the stories have a similar plot, for which reason he believes these stories have a common origin. By deduction he traces the different versions to the time when the Tuscarora migrated north from North Carolina.
In chapter 5 Wonderley surveys over fifty windigo tales. Although he looks at the windigo tales (as most anthropologists have for over the last 100 years) as a cultural illness, he tries to examine the content of the stories. He performs this exercise because most of the windigo stories have never received an emic treatment. First, he classifies the tales by their subject themes. Then he tries to find the patterns of the tales. These patterns include windigos as powerful supernaturals, human power and ability to become a windigo, and assigning human behavior to windigos within the human realm. Beneath all of the classifications, the underlying truth is that windigos are evil and must be destroyed. In the final chapter Wonderley discusses the use of folklore in the analysis of material culture from the archaeological record. He looks at pottery and pipe styles and he employs his encyclopedic knowledge of Iroquoian folktales to make inferences about those ornamentations. He feels that many of the stylistic embellishments reference common characters from the Iroquoian pantheon and that the symbolism reflects the importance of bountiful harvests. The pipes are attributed to male activity and the pots to the realm of female activity. Even though I feel his conclusions are obvious, I believe he is taking contemporary folklore in a much-needed direction.
I have several issues with this book. Primarily, the sources derive from English-only texts, individual performances of the retellings are missing, and the reader and the participants are removed from those historical instances. How are we able to retrace cultural history back to those moments before European contact? How can we distinguish what has been embellished or censored from the tales? The fact is we can’t and can never do so. There are too many “ifs” in these scenarios, and even though Wonderley gives it an excellent shot, I feel that he misses the bullseye on several occasions. However, this does not mean that he or we should not try. Nonetheless, we can only accept the stories as they are archived now; if we attempt to overanalyze them as to how things once existed, then we run the risk of treading into the dangerous territory of fiction. On the flipside, how can folklore studies progress if there is no risk-taking in pushing these parameters? These studies become like a double-edged sword, that is, subjects we all need to pursue in an ethical fashion.
During my initial reading of this book, I felt that Wonderley’s inferences about Northeastern cultural life were self-evident, but after reflecting on this I have come to change my mind and I see the benefits of his efforts. I think if we were to approach other cultures that have not received as much attention as Iroquoian and Algonquian peoples, we could potentially see great rewards in this kind of effort. All of the chapters argue for the importance of oral narratives in understanding First Nations cultures. Wonderley is very respectful to First Nations peoples and to his anthropology and folklore predecessors, which makes the reading of this book a pleasure. This book should be seen as a building block for the application of folklore in the creation of middle-range theories. Even though I am not completely sold on observing material symbolism in the archaeological record, I can see its importance developing over time. I do see the significance of oral narrative in defining ethnic inclusiveness, as in the explanation of the Kahkwa War for the Tuscarora and the Seneca. Lastly, I agree with Wonderley that oral narrative can be an object for the study of cultural change over time. The stories change as cultures change. However, in a few of these instances I feel that these recordings are also reflective of those who recorded them, showing the changes in the social sciences as well as in their subjects.
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[Review length: 1027 words • Review posted on May 25, 2010]