December's Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives

by Thomas C. Blackburn

As Reviewed by Eugene N. Anderson, University of California, Riverside in The Journal of California Anthropology, Vol. 2, No. 2 (WINTER 1975), pp. 241-244:A child born in December is "like a baby in an ecstatic condition, but he leaves this condition" (p. 102). The Chumash, reduced by the 20th century from one of the richest and most populous groups in California to a pitiful remnant, had almost lost their strage and ecstatic mental world by the time John Peabody Harrington set out to collect what was still remembered of their language and oral literature. Working with a handful of ancient informants, Harrington recorded all he could--then, in bitter rejection of the world, kept it hidden and unpublished. After his death there began a great quest for his scattered notes, and these notes are now being published at last. Thomas Blackburn, among the first and most assiduous of the seekers through Harrington's materials, has published her the main body of oral literature that Harrington collected from the Chumash of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. Blackburn has done much more: he has added to the 111 stories a commentary and analysis, almost book-length in its own right, and a glossary of the Chumash and Californian-Spanish terms that Harrington was prone to leave untranslated in the texts.

Genres: Anthropology

394 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably the definitive source of Chumash stories, collected by J.P. Harrington from Chumash-speakers less than 100 years ago.

My favorite is the story of the soul's journey after death to the sacred land over the horizon to the west. The imagery, like all mythology, is stunningly rich and deep.

Any one who wants to appreciate more deeply the indigenous roots of Southern California should have this book.

[Glenn Anaiscourt · Rating 5 out of 5]

To me, the greatest value of this book is that it contains stories that germinated on California soil. In California we have the pleasure of exposure to narrative elements and personalities known to the peoples of distant lands, who are familiar to us today in a variety of contexts by way of the European diaspora: Morpheus, Nike, Olympus, Hercules, Calypso, the Sirens, Mercury, Nemesis, Pan, and hemlock to name a few. The narrative elements and personalities of tales from before the Spanish arrival ought to be familiar as well, since they are, in fact, from this country: Momoy, Kaqunup’mawa, the Elyewun, Iwihinmu, Cholchol, Shimilaqsha, the nunashish, the ksen, Slo’w, Qaq, Humqaq, Shnilemun, and ayip, among many others, and works such as December’s Child help to address this problem.

December’s Child contains a collection of tales from what are currently Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. As all such collections do, they reflect views and ideas that shed light on the perspectives of those who produced and told them, and have the power to influence our own perspectives and ideas about life going forward today.

Some of the stories are quite short. Others are long and complicated, require careful consideration, and are hard to read through in an ordinary sitting.

Blackburn provides background and photos of those who provided the source material, including John Harrington, Fernando Librado, María Solares, and others. He also discusses Chumashan family life, gender roles, political life, and cultures and languages generally, with reference to the particular stories he includes in this collection. He discusses Chumashan cosmology, and to some degree Pomo cosmology as well, since the two correspond in important ways and have certain details in common. Blackburn also includes interesting tables of items of material culture and social roles culled from the stories themselves, which give a better idea of the culture of the people who originated them.

Blackburn also provides his thoughts about the underlying meaning of the stories, which I found very interesting and helpful as a reader.

[Christian Layow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ethnographically wonderful book. But it is one of those books you probably need to own and revisit if you want to pull out any significant understanding of this Native American oral tradition. At least if you come at it from a mind raised on mostly European derived folklore. These stories need to be read and thought about, then read again at a different time.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Go-to book about the storytelling of California's Chumash, with comprehensive introduction to Chumash history and culture and to the story-collecting process.