ZUI AND THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION

Eliza McFeely, ZUÑI AND THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION

Ever since the publication of Ruth Benedict's bestselling Patterns of Culture in 1934, which imagined the culture of the Zuñi Indians as a communal alternative to Western individualism, many Americans—from utopian novelists like Aldous Huxley and Robert Heinlein to New Age seekers—have been riveted by these natives of what is now New Mexico. In her first published work, which began as her dissertation at NYU, McFeely (who teaches American history at the College of New Jersey) explores the influence of the Zuñis on American culture. Her focus is on the work of three turn-of-the-century ethnologists—Matilda Stevenson, Frank Cushing and Stewart Culin—which provided the foundation for Benedict's later, better-known studies. Though McFeely may overstate the importance of her own subjects in the complex relationship of Zuñi to the American consciousness (after all, Benedict's work was more widely read), she offers a fascinating glimpse of the Dark Ages of American anthropology. For example, Stevenson introduced a Zuñi "princess" to official Washington, apparently unaware that she was a berdache, a man who had chosen to identify with the women of the pueblo. Meanwhile, Culin prepared a hoard of "manufactured artifacts" to send to his Brooklyn Museum's ethnology halls. While Stevenson, Cushing and Culin were sincerely committed to preserving what they thought was a vanishing culture (Zuñi is very much alive today), it's their "walk-on-the-wild–side" mentality that makes them such irresistible subjects. Despite repetitious, academic writing, McFeely's provocative study will appeal to American history fans, who will never again be able to look at museum dioramas of Native American cultures in the same way. Illus. not seen by PW. (Apr.)

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Reviewed on: 03/05/2001

Genre: Nonfiction

Other - 978-1-4668-9410-5

Paperback - 288 pages - 978-0-8090-1629-7