December's Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives

By Thomas C. Blackburn

Book Overview

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of ancient informants, Harrington recorded all he could--then, in bitter rejection of the world, kept it hidden and unpublished.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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520040880
• ISBN13: 9780520040885
• Release Date: July 1980
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Important Introduction to Southern California Religion

The Chumash Peoples live in a territory stretching from San Luis Obispo all the way to the Simi Hills bordering the San Fernando Valley. This important book documents some of their most important Sacred Stories, and gives insights into their views on the creation, the flood, the afterlife, the soul, and the forever wise/foolish adventures of Coyote.This is a book that everyone living in Southern California should read ; in fact, it should be required reading in the schools.However, I would like to see a second edition with commentary on the stories by contemporary Chumash peoples. Blackburn's beginning commentary, in my opinion, shows very little insight into the culture. These are amazing stories, but they are a little different than the mythology that most people are used to, so an insider's viewpoint on appreciating their special flavor would be very useful. Eventually, an entire commentary like rabbinical commentaries on the Torah will prove critical in demonstrating the inview on divinity and world these very special people have. A well-developed astrological system, a sophisticated notion of soul, an attunement with the creatures in this area ... there is much to be gleaned here.We must learn the aboriginal patterns of this land. For anyone in the Southern California area, this is a good beginning.