Ruth Murray Underhill – författare

Red Man's America meets the great need for a comprehensive study of Indian societies from the first Stone Age hunters to the American citizens of today. Beginning with the first migrations of primitive man from Siberia in the Old World to Alaska in the New, probably during the latter part of the Pleistocene glaciations, and his subsequent migration southward and eastward, the author takes up in turn the tribes and cultures of the various regions of North America. The material Professor Underhill has gathered from the fields of archaeology, ethnology, and history, together with that drawn from her own experience in the United States Indian Service, produces a fascinating narrative. Red Man's America is an important contribution to our heritage of Indian life and lore. "A work for which both sociologist and historian will be forever grateful. The author has combined a long period of study with actual field work in the service of the Indian to produce a work that gives a brief, but well written and accurate, sketch of the origins, backgrounds, and customs of the various North American tribes. . . . There is no other modern single volume that contains as much information on the subject."—E.R. Vollmar, The Historical Bulletin"Liveliness in style and illustration, together with perspicacity in content, makes this book a useful introduction to the civilization of the original inhabitants of the land."—Pacific Historical Review

Among the topics considered in this classic study are world origins and supernatural powers, attitudes toward the dead, the medicine man and shaman, hunting and gathering rituals, war and planting ceremonies, and newer religions, such as the Ghost Dance and the Peyote Religion."The distinctive contribution of [Red Man's Religion] is the treatment of topics, the insight and the perspective of the author, and her ability to transmit these to the reader. . . . Trais and aspects of religion are not treated as abstract entitites, to be enumerated and summated, assigned a geographic distribution, and then abandoned. No page is a dry recital; each is an illumination. Insight and wisdom are framed in poetic prose. An offering of information in such a medium merits gratitude."—American Anthropologist

Ruth Murray Underhill’s Singing for Power is a pioneering exploration of the song magic of the Papago (now Tohono O’odham) people of southern Arizona. Drawing on fourteen months of immersive fieldwork in the 1930s, Underhill presents translations of ritual songs and orations that animate Papago life—from rainmaking and planting to hunting, war, and healing. Through these songs, she demonstrates how speech and rhythm were not mere expressions but acts of power, vividly describing desired events to bring them into being. Her translations are accompanied by careful cultural context, offering insight into the ways the Papago understood rain, animals, crops, and communal bonds as interwoven with the supernatural.At once ethnography, poetry, and historical record, Singing for Power preserves ceremonies and oral traditions that were already in transition at the time of Underhill’s visits. From the “Papago Bible” recited at winter solstice to the cactus wine rituals that called down the rains, the book captures a worldview where song was the most valuable possession a person could hold. Underhill’s sensitivity to both the artistry and the practical force of these performances situates the work as a classic in anthropology and Native American studies, one that continues to resonate with scholars of ritual, oral tradition, and the desert Southwest.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1938.