Dictionary of Native American Mythology

by Sam D. Gill, Irene F. Sullivan

Dictionary of Native American Mythology includes over 1,000 colorful, sometimes earthy, and always intriguing entries. Using the carefully chosen cross references, readers can quickly access the meanings of hundreds of elements of lore―from names, phrases, and symbols to images, motifs, and themes.

Ten territory maps, which pinpoint exact locations of the tribes mentioned in the text, and a tribal index enhance this volume's usefulness. The bibliography is the most extensive ever compiled on the subject. A delight to the casual browser, and indispensable for anyone interested in the study of Native American cultures.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, Reference, Spirituality, Anthropology, Native American, History

425 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1992

About the author

Sam Gill is Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Native American religions were the focus of his work for twenty-five years. He regularly hung out in cultures in the American Southwest—Navajo, Hopi, Yaqui, and Zuni—to observe ritual and dancing. Since the early 1990s Sam has been an enthusiastic student of dancing in cultures around the world including travel to observe and study dancing to Bali and Java, Thailand and Nepal, Ghana and Mali, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Sam has taught courses on many topics related to dancing notably a yearlong course “Religion and Dance” that covered over thirty dance traditions and included weekly dance studios taught by artists from the relevant cultures. In the late 1990s Sam founded, with his daughter Jenny, a dance and music school, Bantaba World Dance & Music. For many years he has taught salsa dance in high schools, in his classes at CU, and in the community including a performance group. He has developed an extensive catalog of salsa dance instructional videos. Sam’s insatiable interest in various fields of study—movement, dancing, play, masking, perception and the senses, cognitive science, neuroscience, philosophy, gender issues, fitness, gesture, aging—interweave and shape his current work. Since retiring from teaching in 2017 he has published at least a book a year including an Award Winning book "The Proper Study of Religion: Building on Jonathan Z. Smith" and most recently "Religion: A Contemporary Perspective."

Reviews

[Gail Johnson, Ph.D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this Native American dictionary while was reading other Native American books. Whenever I came across an unfamiliar word, I looked it up in the dictionary. Out of curiosity, sometimes I would just read the words in the dictionary.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect as a dictionary, and very informative of both mythology and culture. My only issue is that there is not a lot about the Choctaw, but there is at least some books the dictionary sited.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an extremely informative and helpful piece of literature. It is chalked full of vivid and descriptive symbols, photographs and knowledge. Although it was a long book to read, I enjoyed it very much and suggest you check it out too. :)