The Mi’kmaq of eastern Canada were among the first indigenous North Americans to encounter colonial Europeans. As early as the mid-sixteenth century; they were trading with French fishers; and by the mid-seventeenth century; large numbers of Mi’kmaq had converted to Catholicism. Mi’kmaw Catholicism is perhaps best exemplified by the community’s regard for the figure of Saint Anne; the grandmother of Jesus. Every year for a week; coinciding with the saint’s feast day of July 26; Mi’kmaw peoples from communities throughout Quebec and eastern Canada gather on the small island of Potlotek; off the coast of Nova Scotia. It is; however; far from a conventional Catholic celebration. In fact; it expresses a complex relationship between the Mi’kmaq; Saint Anne; a series of eighteenth-century treaties; and a cultural hero named Kluskap. Finding Kluskap brings together years of historical research and learning among Mi’kmaw peoples on Cape Breton Island; Nova Scotia. The author’s long-term relationship with Mi’kmaw friends and colleagues provides a unique vantage point for scholarship; one shaped not only by personal relationships but also by the cultural; intellectual; and historical situations that inform postcolonial peoples. The picture that emerges when Saint Anne; Kluskap; and the mission are considered in concert with one another is one of the sacred life as a site of adjudication for both the meaning and efficacy of religion—and the impact of modern history on contemporary indigenous religion.
#913175 in Books 2001-01-22Ingredients: Example IngredientsOriginal language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x 1.00 x 6.00l; 1.05 #File Name: 0271021179316 pages
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. The Classic; UpdatedBy Mr. William G. PooleyThe essays in this collection are classic expositions of some of the more interesting debates in historical writing from the early 1990s in a largely English (with leanings toward the French Annalistes and German Alltagsgeschichte) tradition of historical writing.Burke and the contributors can hardly be blamed for being only as good as their areas of expertise and interest; but it is worth bearing in mind that the book was not considered comprehensive by some American critics and was critiqued for neglecting areas such as cliometrics and psychohistory.Nonetheless; some of the pieces are absolute must-reads for theoretical explorations of different approaches. Levi's essay on micro-history; for instance; is masterful and provocative; even if he disclaims any responsibility for speaking on behalf of all of the Italian practitioners of microhistory. I must say; though; I found Joan W Scott's piece on gender and history to be neither as interesting or provocative as the essays she published in her own volumes; or her classic essay "The Evidence of Experience."Sadly; probably the best essay in the volume; Roy Porter's essay on the history of the body; has been replaced in this new edition; because; as Porter notes; hundreds of historians over the 1990s answered the call to historicize the body. This is a shame because; if the new essay which replaces it is a good overview of work that has been done; the original essay should remain a point of reference for anyone interested not in the history of discourses about the body; but the histories of bodies themselves.Well worth buying and reading carefully; though for the above reason I would seriously consider looking rather for the older edition.2 of 42 people found the following review helpful. New History From a Distinguished Panel of Researchers.By Betty BurksThe editor of this comprehensive textbook; Peter Burke (no relation) is a Reader (I think that is a teacher in Britian) of cultural history at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Emmanuel College; where Gwyn Prins is the director of studies in history and is a contributor to this most interesting history perspective study. He studied grattifi of Renaissane Italy; which could be political street culture if on a famous statue or ritual insults when scribbled on the door of an enemy. He wrote POPULAR CULTURE IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE in 1978.Feminists could not be good historians. Women in history has to show that their presence was required to correct the story. The other female contributor; Joan Scott; is professor his social science at Princeton in America and so is Robert Darnton; a prof of history. The others come from Venice; York; Cambridge and London. A curator of an art museum at Harvard; Ivan Gaskell; is also one of the contributors. Men in history protect the power and resources their dominance gave them. Their resistance to equality between the sexes is a characterization of history.These are just some of the 'new' history writers from a number of fields. We have a local one here who specializes in digging out the old stories from a variable feast of outlaws; visiting dignataries; and sometimes a native who made it big in this two-buck town. This book is unlike anything else now available on this subject. But it is good to remember that it is merely these few distinguished historians' view. I have read other more recent books on this new "entertaining" history writing; where a little imagination of the author is added to the historical facts."New" history can never replace traditional history as it is not the story at all; it's about the story. Peter Burke from England gathered these varied; but slanted; versions of what is now known as 'new' history when it is in fact 'historical fiction.' Sometimes fiction is more real than the truth; so why not embellish it a little to make it more readable. It is a change from all of the dull commentary on what really happened and why. It's more like what might have happened and could be better.This book needs a Glossary as so many esoteric words were used; such as: epistemologically; connoisseurship; iconography; deconstructionists; anachronism; ostensibly; inventiveness; minutiae; fluctuating; disqualificatin; autoradiography; hypothesis; demystificatory; disparities; historicising; canonical; idealogical; taxonomically; elucide; smokescreen; status quo; manipulation; and micropolitics -- and many such words.3 of 44 people found the following review helpful. Good bedside readingBy A CustomerFor those insomniacs out there this book will certainly do the trick. Or it makes a good paper weight or door stop.
