Surviving Through the Days: Translations of Native California Stories and Songs

by Herbert W. Luthin, Darryl Babe Wilson (Contributor), Loren Bommelyn (Contributor)

This anthology of treasures from the oral literature of Native California, assembled by an editor admirably sensitive to language, culture, and history, will delight scholars and general readers alike. Herbert Luthin's generous selection of stories, anecdotes, myths, reminiscences, and songs is drawn from a wide sampling of California's many Native cultures, and although a few pieces are familiar classics, most are published here for the first time, in fresh literary translations. The translators, whether professional linguists or Native scholars and storytellers, are all acknowledged experts in their respective languages, and their introductions to each selection provide welcome cultural and biographical context. Augmenting and enhancing the book are Luthin's engaging, informative essays on topics that range from California's Native languages and oral-literary traditions to critical issues in performance, translation, and the history of California literary ethnography.

Genres: Native American

640 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

Reviews

[Pat MacEwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of oral histories and other stories told by First Nations from all over California. Many are the result of salvage anthropology carried out by researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, much of it done by or under the direction of Ursula LeGuin's father, Alfred Kroeber. The editor, Herbert Luthin, has taken great pains to include background information on the cultures and histories of the various peoples who told these tales of creation, migration, the animal people, and so much more. He has also included tons of linguistic information about both the language families involved (some may be as much as 12,000 years old) and how modern translations were carried out. Most of these stories had never been published before. Luthin also talks about the researchers who did the work, including the likes of John Peabody Harrington and Edward Sapir, as well as many lesser-known figures, and all the difficulties they encountered. I was mainly interested in Coyote stories, and there is a treasure trove of them here, along with songs and the personal viewpoints of the informants.

[C.B. Matson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive and well-researched volume that covers native Californian lore, song, and legends. This scholarly look at native linguistic and cultural traditions presents almost 600 pages of superb research in a single volume. As an introductory text or as a day-to-day reference, "Surviving" is a go-to book on native California lives.

[Melody Villagomez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought it for a class.