"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Monday, July 31, 2017

Hopi - Susanne & Jake Page (1982)

(224 pp)

This had been recommended by Joseph Day (he and his Hope wife run a shop on Second Mesa, discussed here).

Hopi are famously reluctant about allowing photos etc.  This book-project was unusual - undertaken in late 1970s (with initial publication date in 1982) - they explain that the tribe was amenable in part because a book about the Navajo had been well-received a few years earlier.  So I think it was a bit of a PR project.

But nothing similar has since been permitted, so this one is particularly worthwhile.

Interesting discussions of internal politics within Hopi as this existed at that time (no doubt somewhat similar now).  Great photography.  The dances (social and religious).  Hadn't realized the importance of eaglets.  Discussion of spirituality, or spirit world.  How the San Francisco Peaks and other key areas fit into the origin narrative and current locations.  Transition in white man world.  Interactions with Navajo, ongoing border issues.

Incredible continuity over so many centuries.

It's all rather amazing - and centered just a few miles N/NE of here.
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)