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Ishi's Brain: In Search of the Last "Wild" Indian
by
Orin Starn
Captured in the hills of northern California in 1911, Ishi, the last stone-age Indian in North America, was brought to San Francisco by the famous anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, and became a living museum display until his death five years later.
Ishi's Brain is a first-person account by anthropologist Orin Starn, who sought to unravel the mystery of Ishi's true nature and...more
Ishi's Brain is a first-person account by anthropologist Orin Starn, who sought to unravel the mystery of Ishi's true nature and...more
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published
February 17th 2004
by W. W. Norton & Company
(first published February 2004)
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This is a well written and interesting account of the life of Ishi, famous as the last surviving "wild" Indian of northern California, and about the efforts of various people and groups to learn more about Ishi, and to repatriate his remains to groups that desired to give them a proper burial. It is also a detective story about the efforts of the author and others to learn the truth about what had happened to Ishi's brain after his death, and why.
Starn does a pretty good job of exploring the mo...more
Starn does a pretty good job of exploring the mo...more
Starn, an anthropologist from Duke, had long been interested in the story of Ishi, the last of the Yahi and chose to write a very nice book re-telling Ishi's tale. Starn points out that previous work (a book and films) had been plagued with "white man's guilt" and did not always present an accurate re-telling of Ishi's background, reasons for turning himself in to white authorities, and what happened to him after he died.
This story is about more than one Native American or even Native America...more
This story is about more than one Native American or even Native America...more
I thought this book was great. It isn't necessarily a book about the man Ishi, but more about what his "missing body part" and its repatriation symbolized for Native Americans and Anthropologists alike.
Starn's writing is honest and unbiased, and his view of both science and Native California is unromantic - he is not afraid to admit that neither is completely innocent.
Most importantly for me, though, was Starn's treatment of modern-day, White America's ideas of what it means to be "Indian". Th...more
Starn's writing is honest and unbiased, and his view of both science and Native California is unromantic - he is not afraid to admit that neither is completely innocent.
Most importantly for me, though, was Starn's treatment of modern-day, White America's ideas of what it means to be "Indian". Th...more
Best anthropological book I have ever read about Ishi. I love doing my own research to further my knowledge in a subject that is less than 50 miles from my home. I learned of Ishi a few years back in college, so I already had a small interest in the subject and the legend.It was thrilling for me to open maps and realize I have been very near to every place spoken about in the book (that is, in Northern California) I was ASTOUNDED at how well Starn researched his information, not a stone was left...more
I read Theodora Kroeber's Ishi in Two Worlds for a class on the Literature of Ethnography; this is the modern counterpoint, and I'm excited to read it for myself.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Orin Starn uses to good effect the mix of history and personal narrative that are becoming common lately.
The questions he raises along the way are the questions that have come to dominate anthropology recently, questions of identity, authenticity, hybridism, inequality. They are questions that can strike...more
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Orin Starn uses to good effect the mix of history and personal narrative that are becoming common lately.
The questions he raises along the way are the questions that have come to dominate anthropology recently, questions of identity, authenticity, hybridism, inequality. They are questions that can strike...more
While the history of Ishi and the journey of his brain through the academic and scientific worlds was interesting, this book felt too long by a third. I felt that the sections written about the Indian tribes involved in the reclamation efforts was clumsy. The history of anthropology was handled nicely, the detective-novelesque portions of the book were interesting, but the discovery of the smoking gun in the archives was anti-climactic and happened far too early, leaving a lot of pages to slog t...more
This book is so poorly written but full of things I want to know about. It is interesting enough for me to keep turning the pages. I wish there was more about Ishi though. The further the story goes, the lamer the book gets. This book bore such little information on the actual subject matter, but am still glad I got around to finishing it.
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While the book is not strictly about Ishi, the last "wild indian", it's a great story about what repatriation means for Native American tribes. It's also a great story about some of the clumsy first steps American Anthropology made.
This was a great story. Informative and compelling.
This book is an incredible account of what happened to Ishi in California, and I really enjoyed the parts that were about Ishi himself - however, towards the end of the book, the author descends into a somewhat narcissistic account of his interaction with California tribes, which includes gossip and unrelated information. He should have ended the book 100 pages before he did.
Ishi's story gets a modern update, along with the interesting history of anthropology in America.
An unusual (for me) foray into nonfiction. This one was recommended by a work friend, and it's very readable so far, even to little ol' fiction-oriented me.
interested in native americans...this one has been interesting so far....remembering watching the tv movie made about Ishi...
Great professor of mine! Interesting read on a somewhat obscure topic.
Apr 25, 2013
Chris
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Apr 17, 2013
Olea Morris
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Orin Starn is Professor and Chair of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. He is the author of Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes and a co-editor of The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics, both also published by Duke University Press. His most recent book is the award-winning Ishi’s Brain: In Search of America’s Last “Wild” Indian. An avid golfer with a five handicap, Starn...more
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