Colonial Mediascapes: Sensory Worlds of the Early Americas

455 Pages·2014·28.775 MB·English

by  Matt Cohen

Colonial Mediascapes

Colonial Mediascapes
Sensory Worlds of the Early Americas
Edited and with an introduction by
Matt Cohen and Jeffrey Glover
Foreword by Paul Chaat Smith
University of Nebraska Press
Lincoln and London
© 2014 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska
Parts of chapter 4 were previously published in Birgit Brander Rasmussen’s
“Writing in the Conflict Zone: Don Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala’s El primer
nueva corónica y buen gobierno,” in Queequeg’s Coffin: Indigenous Literacies and
Early American Literature, 79– 110 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012).
Copyright © 2012 by Duke University Press, all rights reserved. Republished by
permission of the copyright holder (www.dukepress.edu).
An expanded version of chapter 7 originally appeared in Peter Charles Hoffer’s
Sensory Worlds in Early America, 22– 76 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 2005). Reprinted courtesy of Johns Hopkins University Press.
Chapter 8 was previously published in Jon T. Coleman’s Vicious: Wolves and Men
in America, 19– 36 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004). Reprinted courtesy
of Yale University Press.
All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America.
Publication of this volume was assisted by the Virginia Faulkner Fund,
established in memory of Virginia Faulkner, editor in chief
of the University of Nebraska Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Colonial mediascapes: sensory worlds of the early Americas / edited and with an
introduction by Matt Cohen and Jeffrey Glover; foreword by Paul Chaat Smith.
pages cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0 - 8032-3 239-6 (cloth: alk. paper)—isbn 978- 0- 8032-4 999- 8 (pbk.:
alk. paper)—isbn 978- 0- 8032-5 441- 1 (epub)—isbn 978- 0- 8032-5 442- 8 (mobi)
1. Indians of North America—C ommunication. 2. Indians of Mexico—
Communication. 3. Indians of South America—C ommunication. 4. First contact
of aboriginal peoples with Westerners— America—History—1 7th century.
5. Communication—A merica—H istory— 17th century. 6. Literacy— America—
History—1 7th century. 7. Books and reading—A merica—History—1 7th century.
8. Oral tradition—A merica—History—1 7th century. 9. United States—
History—C olonial period, ca. 1600–1 775. 10. Great Britain— Colonies—A merica.
11. Spain— Colonies—A merica. I. Cohen, Matt, 1970–
e98.c73c65 2014 973.3— dc23 2013035773
Set in Adobe Caslon by Laura Wellington. Designed by J. Vadnais.
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Foreword xi
Paul Chaat Smith
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
Matt Cohen and Jeffrey Glover
Part I. Beyond Textual Media
1. Dead Metaphor or Working
Model? “The Book” in Native America 47
Germaine Warkentin
2. Early Americanist Grammatology:
Definitions of Writing and Literacy 76
Andrew Newman
3. Indigenous Histories and Archival
Media in the Early Modern Great Lakes 99
Heidi Bohaker
Part II. Multimedia Texts
4. The Manuscript, the Quipu, and the
Early American Book: Don Felipe
Guaman Poma de Ayala’s Nueva
Corónica y Buen Gobierno 141
Birgit Brander Rasmussen
5. Semiotics, Aesthetics, and the
Quechua Concept of Quilca 166
Galen Brokaw
6. “Take My Scalp, Please!”:
Colonial Mimesis and the French
Origins of the Mississippi Tall Tale 203
Gordon M. Sayre
Part III. Sensory New Worlds
7. Brave New Worlds: The First
Century of Indian- English Encounters 233
Peter Charles Hoffer
8. Howls, Snarls, and Musket Shots:
Saying “This Is Mine” in Colonial
New England 266
Jon Coleman
9. Hearing Wampum: The Senses,
Mediation, and the Limits of Analogy 290
Richard Cullen Rath
Part IV: Transatlantic Mediascapes
10. Writing as “Khipu”: Titu Cusi
Yupanqui’s Account of the Conquest of Peru 325
Ralph Bauer
11. Christian Indians at War:
Evangelism and Military Communication
in the Anglo-F rench- Native Borderlands 357
Jeffrey Glover
12. The Algonquian Word and the Spirit
of Divine Truth: John Eliot’s Indian
Library and the Atlantic Quest for a
Universal Language 376
Sarah Rivett
Contributors 409
Index 413

Illustrations
Map
3.1. The Great Lakes region 103
Figures
3.1. “Peace Path” belt 106
3.2. 1701 Great Peace of Montreal signature page 107
3.3. Doodem images on an 1844 petition 110
3.4. Francis Densmore’s example of a
traveler’s message 114
3.5. Ball- headed club inscribed with
pictographic images 120
3.6. Pipe carved in the style of a ball- headed
weapon inscribed with pictographic images 121
3.7 and 3.8. Thunderbird shoulder bag 122
3.9 Woven pipe bag 123
3.10. Carved pipe 124
3.11. Effigy pipe bowl 125
4.1. Incan official with two quipus 148