The Beautiful and The Dangerous Encounters with the Zuni Indians

by Barbara Tedlock

Based on over twenty years' research at Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico, this honest and respectful book takes us into the heart of one Zuni family and allows us to witness the world through its members' eyes. We see the joys of love, marriage, and childbirth and the tragedies of illness, alcoholism, and death. We rediscover the Southwestern landscape, its plants and wildlife, in light of traditional Zuni teachings. The Beautiful and the Dangerous was originally published in 1992, and is now available only from UNM Press. "Literature as fine and sensitive as the storytelling of Matthiessen and Chatwin."--George E. Marcus, professor of anthropology, Rice University"Deftly weaves together a range of life-story narratives, legends, myths, and male and female voices. . . . The writing sparkles with the visual acuity of a painter's eye, and it has a bold honesty about the experience of being in the field, achieving an integration of image and text that is totally new to ethnography."--Ruth Behar, professor of anthropology, University of MichiganTakes us into the heart of one Zuni family and allows us to witness the world through its members� eyes.

Genres: Anthropology, Native American

Library Binding

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Bob Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unorthodox but effective

When I arrived at university as a freshman, I decided to take Anthropology 101. A few weeks before, I probably couldn’t even have spelled “anthropology”, but I soon embarked on what would eventually become my career. Sitting in that first September class, which I remember as very interesting even now, almost 60 years later, I also soon realized that what some of my classmates said was true. The course could also have been called “Zuni 101”. Our professor had done his fieldwork among the Zuni, and now trotted out Zuni examples to accompany every topic. And if what we discussed did not have any connection to those Southwestern Indians of New Mexico, he let us know that “among the Zuni, this does not occur”. Well, I’m certainly not criticizing him, it’s just to say that I heard about that group of people early on. Fast forwarding some 34 years, I found myself in Zuni for a few hours one day. It seemed a far more dynamic and together place than any of the other pueblos I saw.

I’d have to say, as an anthropologist, that some smaller peoples have been overstudied. Maybe that’s a non-sequitur since every culture keeps changing and so is attractive to multiple generations of scholars. But, come on, gimme a break, how many white anthropologists can zoom into a small Indian community without becoming a bit of a pain? I think Barbara Tedlock felt something of this and as I note in her acknowledgements the name of Ruth Behar, I felt a bit of influence from the latter. Behar wrote a wonderful book, but was overly apologetic about stuff she did while in Mexico. I mean, if you thought you shouldn’t do it, why did you do it? If you felt guilty about being the white anthropologist, why did you persist? Tedlock generally avoids such useless ruminations in this most interesting, beautifully-written book.

There is no jargon, there is no theorizing, there is no division into “classical” anthropological topic chapters. Tedlock describes daily life, customs, and especially religious life and practice with loving detail, weaving back and forth between ordinary life scenes and highly-fraught, complex ceremonies. She respects the Zuni and presents them as people, full people, each with their own characteristics and life choices within the circle of Zuni culture. You feel that you knew them, back then in the 1970s, their kindness, their problems, their expectations of life. Poems, songs, legends, and descriptions of ceremonies bring a lot of color and art into the text. A set of black and white photos leave a lot to be desired. I’m not going to natter on about the details, but if you are interested in a picture of Native American life in the mid-20th century this is your book. Not only that, but Tedlock did not at all hide behind “academic objectivity”. She puts herself and her husband right into the picture, so that this book gives not only a picture of the Zuni, but of the process of doing anthropology as well.

[Charles Lord · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads more like poetry than prose. Great for appreciating the humanity of the Zuni, the qualities of intercultural encounters and the nature of ethnography. However its eschewal, if not experimentation, with narrative wholes, unravels the culture concept, and much of the satisfaction that such abstractions entail.

[Izzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for people interested in ethnography and anthropology.

[Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barbara and Denis Tedlock visited the Zuni Indians for over a twenty year period. Ethnographers, they observed and recorded fascinating information on Zuni daily life and rituals. This is a well-written and absorbing account of their findings.

[Bill Dilworth]

The Beautiful and the Dangerous: Dialogues with the Zuni Indians by Barbara Tedlock (1993)