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The Last Matriarch
Over eleven thousand years ago the plains of the great Southwest were covered with sweet long-season grass and inhabited by camels, bison, mammoths, dire wolves, and the hunter gatherers we now call the Clovis people. This story of Willow, Jak, Etol, and their clan takes place in a land that we unconsciously recognize, and shows us people whose needs, hopes, and fears are our own. They live in a world where communication with animals, plants, and even stones is not only possible but essential for survival. Willow's life path echoes that of Half Ear and Red Fur, the matriarchs of the woolly mammoth herd. By joining their stories, Russell explores an archaeological the extinction of nearly eighty percent of large land mammals at the end of the Pleistocene. The meaning of being human lies at the heart of the puzzle. Russell's imaginative reconstruction of the world of Willow and her clan illumines the tribal self--the basket maker, the mammoth hunter, the healer, the shaman--that still lives in each of us. "Books like this one can teach us not only the facts of the Paleolithic past, but also allow us to share the experiences of our ancestors. The Last Matriarch does both and does them beautifully."--Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of Reindeer Moon
200 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
8 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Sharman Apt Russell
27 books265 followersI am pleased to be considered a nature and science writer and excited that my Diary of a Citizen Scientist was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing. The John Burroughs Medal was first given in 1926, and recipients include Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Barry Lopez, John McPhee, and many others. To be in such a list.
My most recent nonfiction is What Walks This Way: Discovering the Wildlife Around Us Through Their Tracks and Signs (Columbia University Press, 2024)--part memoir of my tracking experiences, part introduction to the basics of identifying mammal tracks, and part call to reform how we manage wildlife in North America.
My previous Within Our Grasp: Childhood Malnutrition Worldwide and the Revolution Taking Place to End It (Pantheon Books, April, 2021) combines my longtime interest in the environment with my longtime interest in hunger. I began writing about this subject some twenty years ago, believing firmly that the goals of the environmentalist and the humanitarian are aligned. Healthy children require a healthy Earth. A healthy Earth requires healthy children.
Essentially I write about whatever interests me and seems important--living in place, grazing on public land, archaeology, flowers, butterflies, hunger, Cabeza de Vaca, citizen science, global warming, and pantheism.
I like this range of subject matter. I believe, too, in this braid of myth and science, celebration and apocalypse.
A little bit of bio:
Raised in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, in 1981 I settled in southern New Mexico as a "back to the lander" and have stayed there ever since. I am a professor emeritus in the Humanities Department at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, as well as a mentoring faculty at Antioch University in Los Angeles. I received my MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana and my B.S. in Conservation and Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley.
My work has been translated into Korean, Chinese, Swedish, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Polish, and Italian. That is really a unique thrill: to see your words in Chinese ideograms.
My most recent nonfiction is What Walks This Way: Discovering the Wildlife Around Us Through Their Tracks and Signs (Columbia University Press, 2024)--part memoir of my tracking experiences, part introduction to the basics of identifying mammal tracks, and part call to reform how we manage wildlife in North America.
My previous Within Our Grasp: Childhood Malnutrition Worldwide and the Revolution Taking Place to End It (Pantheon Books, April, 2021) combines my longtime interest in the environment with my longtime interest in hunger. I began writing about this subject some twenty years ago, believing firmly that the goals of the environmentalist and the humanitarian are aligned. Healthy children require a healthy Earth. A healthy Earth requires healthy children.
Essentially I write about whatever interests me and seems important--living in place, grazing on public land, archaeology, flowers, butterflies, hunger, Cabeza de Vaca, citizen science, global warming, and pantheism.
I like this range of subject matter. I believe, too, in this braid of myth and science, celebration and apocalypse.
A little bit of bio:
Raised in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, in 1981 I settled in southern New Mexico as a "back to the lander" and have stayed there ever since. I am a professor emeritus in the Humanities Department at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, as well as a mentoring faculty at Antioch University in Los Angeles. I received my MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana and my B.S. in Conservation and Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley.
My work has been translated into Korean, Chinese, Swedish, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Polish, and Italian. That is really a unique thrill: to see your words in Chinese ideograms.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 17, 2015
The Last Matriarch successfully immerses the reader in the pre-historic world, where the human experience turns out to be very familiar. Family, friendship, celebrations, mourning, and shared meals give meaning to the lives of pre-historic Americans just as they do today. The parts of Russell's story that are unfamiliar to us today--hunting mammoths, constant fear of being eaten--are presented so matter-of-factly that the reader begins to re-discover those feelings and that vulnerability. Russell skillfully draws the reader into an ancient mother's experience, while simultaneously offering fascinating descriptions of mammoth family behavior. Detailed and convincing description of regional geography and ecology stems from good research and Russell's personal familiarity with the places featured in the book. In addition to all of this, Russell smoothly integrates thoughts about the extinction of Ice Age-era North American big game into the story. The Last Matriarch leaves the reader pondering the beauty and fragility of life.
May 10, 2013
I loved this story. Breathtaking in capturing the ancestral consciousness of the Southwest. I plan to reread it in the future to further absorb the author's masterful storytelling of our human legacy.
January 15, 2021
Tremendous in scope, close by at heart, this life-arc story of a woman of the Clovis people is compelling. Her story through the years and generations, part of the earth and heavens, is remarkably done. It is reminiscent of the Ishi writings by Theodore Kroeber, Ursula McGuin's mother--sweeping in scope, brave in its depths, and so true to the universal spirit of all humankind. This is one of the very few books I wanted to start over immediately after I'd finished it.
July 30, 2023
"The matriarch began the list of her children, a long line of descendants that gave her much pleasure to recite. This was another story of family, surival, and gifts. The story should have comforted me." This quote from THE LAST MATRIARCH encapsulates what the author has done for us. She has given us a story that not only entertains and enlightens, but leaves us uncomfortable because it is hard to take comfort from a story that tells us the hard facts about living and dying on a planet that is always changing. We are taken back to Paleolithic times when many animal forms, now extinct, were roaming the earth freely; times when humans were living closely with these animals, dependent on them, and holding them in reverance even as they hunted and consumed their flesh. The tribal story she relates here is like one of the baskets woven by the women who people this book. It holds accumulated knowledge of generations, and teaches the reader about the way it was, the way it may have been, with skill and a deep appreciation and reverance for who we have been as humans on this earth. It made me accutely aware of what our power now may have on species and on each other in these perilous times of climate change, and how impactful our role in our future. Now more than ever, humans must remember the earth is stardust, so are we. It is to be cared for or we perish.
February 11, 2023
The last matriarch by Sharman Apt Russell
(An book read on Scribd)
This is the life journey of Willow. Willow and her people live in the American Southwest but in the past. Her people have a deep connection to everything in their World and they believe they carry a plant or animal spirit with Them. The interconnectedness of their World is beautiful as much as the art of survival is at times horrible.
Willow will. live to see the last of the mastodon live and die. She Will outlive most everyone she knows. The harsh life of the people at this time is Well demonstrated but is the strength of their connection to Nature. In Willow case, she will find peace in her connection to a mastodons spirit. Personally i Think the relationship of Willow and the mastodon spirit is the best part of the book.
A beautifully written book. I recommend to anyone who had read the works of Jean Auel, or Michael abd kathleen Oneal Gear.
Would i buy it? Yes
(An book read on Scribd)
This is the life journey of Willow. Willow and her people live in the American Southwest but in the past. Her people have a deep connection to everything in their World and they believe they carry a plant or animal spirit with Them. The interconnectedness of their World is beautiful as much as the art of survival is at times horrible.
Willow will. live to see the last of the mastodon live and die. She Will outlive most everyone she knows. The harsh life of the people at this time is Well demonstrated but is the strength of their connection to Nature. In Willow case, she will find peace in her connection to a mastodons spirit. Personally i Think the relationship of Willow and the mastodon spirit is the best part of the book.
A beautifully written book. I recommend to anyone who had read the works of Jean Auel, or Michael abd kathleen Oneal Gear.
Would i buy it? Yes
February 11, 2023
The last matriarch by Sharman Apt Russell
(An book read on Scribd)
This is the life journey of Willow. Willow and her people live in the American Southwest but in the past. Her people have a deep connection to everything in their World and they believe they carry a plant or animal spirit with Them. The interconnectedness of their World is beautiful as much as the art of survival is at times horrible.
Willow will. live to see the last of the mastodon live and die. She Will outlive most everyone she knows. The harsh life of the people at this time is Well demonstrated but is the strength of their connection to Nature. In Willow case, she will find peace in her connection to a mastodons spirit. Personally i Think the relationship of Willow and the mastodon spirit is the best part of the book.
A beautifully written book. I recommend to anyone who had read the works of Jean Auel, or Michael abd kathleen Oneal Gear.
Would i buy it? Yes
(An book read on Scribd)
This is the life journey of Willow. Willow and her people live in the American Southwest but in the past. Her people have a deep connection to everything in their World and they believe they carry a plant or animal spirit with Them. The interconnectedness of their World is beautiful as much as the art of survival is at times horrible.
Willow will. live to see the last of the mastodon live and die. She Will outlive most everyone she knows. The harsh life of the people at this time is Well demonstrated but is the strength of their connection to Nature. In Willow case, she will find peace in her connection to a mastodons spirit. Personally i Think the relationship of Willow and the mastodon spirit is the best part of the book.
A beautifully written book. I recommend to anyone who had read the works of Jean Auel, or Michael abd kathleen Oneal Gear.
Would i buy it? Yes
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews