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Show REVIEWS REFERENCES CITED Janetski, Joel C. 1991 The Ute of Utah Lake. Anthropological Papers No. 116. University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Simms, Steven R., Carol J. Loveland, and Mark E. Stuart 1991 Prehistoric Skeletal Remains and the Prehistory of the Great Salt Lake Wetlands. Report submitted to the Utah Department of Natural Resources Salt Lake City. State project No. 090UC090. The Student's Guide to Archaeological Illustrating, edited by Brian D. Dillon. Institute of Archaeology, University of California, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90024- 15 10. 1985. 185 pages, 106 illustrations. $ 15.00 ($ 3.00 shipping) soft cover. Reviewed by: Robert B. Kohl Jennifer Jack- Dixie Chapter Utah Statewide Archaeological Society P. 0. Box 1865 St. George, UT 84771 One of the largest problems - in preparing archaeologicalreports, and especially for avocationals, is locating some cooperative and accomplished illustrator to make the black- and- white drawings required. As a teenager working as a Saturday volunteer in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, I recall being amazed at the precision of an employee drawing a fish. Each scale was measured under magnification, each scale was precisely positioned as if it were a piece of art work unto itself. This book, published as Volume 1 of a series titled Archaeological Research Tools, can with practice turn an amateur sketcher into an archaeological artist who may become as accomplished as the museum artist I remember so well. The 13 chapters in the book, all written by experts in the illustration field, cover everything in the archaeological want list. Starting with a chapter on " Tools and Techniques," the book winds through chapters on " Archaeological Map Making," " Architectural Floor Plans," and " Architectural Reconstruction Drawings." There is a chapter on " Stratigraphic Sections," which can certainly be of immense help in completing those necessary but highly involved drawings for final reports on site work. Seven chapters cover the illustration of objects and artifacts from the stelae of the Mayans to the projectile points of Native North American Indians. Sequentially, they are titled " Relief Monuments," " Ceramics," " Special Problems in Ceramic Illustration," " Ceramic Figurines," " Stone Artifacts," and " Shell and Bone Artifacts." There is even a chapter titled " Burial Illustration." The book closes with a chapter titled " Archaeological Illustration from Photographs.'' There are tips for the cameraman, too, in positioning artifacts with both natural and artificial lighting. Short of an instructor looking over your shoulder in a classroom, I know of no other text that can teach so much in so short a time. There is no padding in this volume, it is all strictly drawing- business for the black- and- white illustrator. I would highly recommend it for anyone preoccupied with crow- quill pen, Indian ink, stippling, and shading blues. Indian Givers, by Jack Weatherford. Crown Publishers, New York. 1988. 272 pages. $ 17.95 hardcover. Reviewed by: Robert B. Kohl Jennifer Jack- Dixie Chapter Utah Statewide Archaeological Society P. 0. Box 1865 St. George, UT 84771 This may be the most attitude- adjusting volume in years to explore an unusual portion of the Native American lifestyle. In fact, this fascinating book is a sort of payment of an I. O. U. long overdue to the First Citizens of the New World. Ever since the white European invasion of the Americas, the popular stereotype of the Indian has been that of an indolent, illiterate, incompetent, and frequently savage sort of fellow. In diluted form some of that opinion exists today. Most of us, however, now recognize that this brainwash was created to justify somehow the taking of lands and UTAH ARCHAEOLOGY 1991 waters and the extermination or confinement of Indian people Author Weatherford does not address this caricature directly, but investigates the facts of cultivars, medicinals, inventions, and developments of these often maligned prehistoric people of North, Central, and South America. He subliminally abolishes any negative opinions still remaining. We quickly learn fiom his research that these early ones were imaginative, creative, inventive, and pretty smart folks. The magic of this author is in relating so many of these items not just in the context of who made or who did what, but in the much broadened view of their impact on the politics, lifestyles and economies of the entire world. Mention pineapple, for instance, and we think Hawaii. But the Zapotecs, Mixtecs, and Toltecs of Central American were cultivating the fruit for untold centuries before the Dole family started their mid- Pacific plantations. As any traveler to native Mexican markets knows, the ripe pineapple is sold or traded there as a sweet treat by the slice or whole fruit. It has been so since no one remembers when. Or mention the white potato and we think Idaho or Ireland. The original white potato was first hybridized from a wild variety by the Andean Indians about 8000 B. C. By careful selection they developed potatoes that would mature at various seasons on terraced plots ranging from river floodplain to mountain highs. These early agricultural experimenters developed some 3,000 varieties compared to the mere 250 we know today. Ireland, as with so many European countries of the time, depended upon grain- based gruels and porridges and despised root crops. Yet the Emerald Isle became so dependent upon the imported tuber that thousands of Irish starved or emigrated when the potato blight destroyed their crop. The Great Potato Famine was the catalyst for the 1.75 million Irish arrivals in the New World in the mid- 1800s. Moreover, the pre- Incas first spread their potatoes on the ground at high elevations, stomped the water out of them, let them freeze overnight, and repeated the process the next day. The resulting mashed and dried pulp could be stored for many months and then reconstituted with water. Most of us believe that freeze- drying is a recent American invention. Not so at dl, yet the Andeans get no credit for developing the process that now fills the fiozen food sections of supermarkets. Weatherford frequently traces language. He notes that batata was a Caribbean name for the potato, a name corrupted by the Spanish. He also traces the impact of this New World cultivar on Ireland and Russia in causing what may have been the world's first agriculture- based population explosions. Readers of archaeological books are deluged with the corn/ beans/ squash syndrome, all of the domesticated in our own front yard. The English still call it maize to distinguish it from early Biblical t m s and later English laws relating to other grains. Corn, as we know it, is the largest field crop in the United States and our largest agricultural export. It is now grown worldwide and its influence on many nations is perhaps of secondary importance only to rice or wheat. The author reports that kidney beans, string beans, snap beans, butter beans, lima beans, navy beans, and pole beans were all first cultivated and processed by Indians of the Americas. Many of these beans now carry prefixes such as French, Rangoon, Burma, and Madagascar, but none carry any of the cultural names of their New World paternalism. Weatherford's story is not just about foodstuffs. Little credit is ever given to the Native South Americans for their discovery of quinine in cinchona bark as a preventative and cure for malaria. It is also now used in treating anemia, as an anti- pyretic, in obstetrics, and as a float called tonic water for diluting a jigger or two of gin or vodka. Also largely uncredited is Ipecac, the medicinal urged to be in every home as an emetic for children who have swallowed household poisons. The roots of this creeping Brazilian shrub were used medicinally by pre- Columbian Indians for centuries, according to Weatherford. Charles Goodyear gets the credit for inventing vulcanizing; some people even think he invented rubber. Various cultures in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize Fist discovered that latex could be tapped from the rubber tree. The first playing balls were all of New World rubber and used in ball court games where the scoreboard indicated not just who lost the game but their heads as well. As for vulcanizing, the same Central and South American Indians learned how to eliminate the stickiness of raw latex and get more bounce to the REVIEWS ounce. They simply dipped wooden paddles into sulfurous wood ashes when making their round pelotas-- and that is primitive vulcanizing. The review seems endless. Readers, however, should enjoy for themselves the history and impact of amaranth, manioc ( tapioca), chilis, tomatoes, peanuts, cashews, Brazil nuts, tobacco, curare, chewing gum, coca ( as in colas and cocaine), chocolate, papaya, and avocadoes. And readers will enjoy the stories about origins of succotash, jerky, pemmican, and popcorn! A final attitude adjustment might include remembrance of last year's Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey was domesticated by Indians who used its feather more than its meat. The probable menu of corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberries, squash, pumpkins, pecan pie, and maple sugar candy included all New World crops. All were cultivated or domesticated or processed by the Natives of the Americas so often castigated for lack of innovation. Weatherford makes an issue of the fact that not one of the foods, medicinals, or processes reported in his book was known in the Old World until Columbus and the Spanish conquistadors who followed him carried them back to their homeland. It is commendable that author Jack Weatherford has made a payment on an I. O. U. many centuries overdue- and given us some enjoyable reading as well. Willow Creek, eastern Utah |
