About this book
Contribution to Passamaquoddy Folk-Lore by Jesse Walter Fewkes is a compelling glimpse into early American ethnography and the urgent work of preserving Native oral traditions. Fewkes, writing at the end of the 19th century, documents Passamaquoddy tales, songs, and linguistic observations while arguing for more accurate methods of recording indigenous languages and rituals.
Balancing field notes and methodological reflection, Fewkes examines the strengths of oral memory among the Passamaquoddy and the limits of phonetic transcription. He compares ritual memorization across tribes, notes the difficulty of capturing inflections and gutturals in written form, and famously advocates using the phonograph to reduce translation errors and preserve songs and stories for future study. The book situates these technical concerns within the broader historical context of anthropology and folklore studies as they developed in the 1890s.
Ideal for listeners interested in history, anthropology, folklore, linguistics, and Native American studies, this audiobook offers both a primary-source account of Passamaquoddy culture and a window into the early development of field methods. Listen to understand how one researcher sought to safeguard vanishing voices and reshape how scholars collect and preserve cultural heritage.
