Eliot A . Singer - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Eliot A . Singer
A Few “Intensive Comparative Method” Observations on the North American Flood Myth, 2025
This is basically a sampler and enticement for those interested in world mythology and the flood ... more This is basically a sampler and enticement for those interested in world mythology and the flood in particular to follow through by reading the 150,000 word full translation-study, which will undoubtedly need yet more revisions: https://picaresquescholar.wordpress.com/nenabozho-recreates-the-earth/
This is another of the William Johnston collected manuscripts from the Schoolcraft Papers. Althou... more This is another of the William Johnston collected manuscripts from the Schoolcraft Papers. Although conflating probably a couple centuries worth of conflicts under Saugemau, a powerful leader with great shamanistic powers, Chusco's tale is of tremendous importance for ethnohistorical research. I have added comments, making what connections I can, though probably the tip of the iceberg. His version of war with the Mascouten should be further impetus for seeking Mascouten archeological sites in NW Michigan.
William Johnston's "Manners and Customs of the Leech Lake Indians", 2024
This is one of the neglected William Johnston manuscripts from the Schoolcraft Papers and an impo... more This is one of the neglected William Johnston manuscripts from the Schoolcraft Papers and an important addition to ethnography of the Anishinaabeg. I have written a brief introduction, but the document needs to be analyzed in relation to the extensive related materials and interpretations
https://picaresquescholar.wordpress.com/ojibwe-tales-2/, 2022
When I started seeking versions and variants for a comparative study to accompany my translation ... more When I started seeking versions and variants for a comparative study to accompany my translation of Penesi’s Person Who Sembles a Bear, I discovered that, even though people have been writing about Algonquian shamanism for nearly 400 years, no one had bothered to compile and analyze the myriad personal and hearsay anecdotes pertaining to witchcraft. So I did. There are some interesting patterns.
Longfellow tried to make sense of Pau-Puk-Keewis as character for Song of Hiawatha: a rambunctiou... more Longfellow tried to make sense of Pau-Puk-Keewis as character for Song of Hiawatha: a rambunctious young man, exuberant dancer, gambler, reckless, arrogant, to the point of self-destructive behavior. Now that I have identified William Johnston as the “translator” and excised Schoolcraft’s modifications for Algic Researches, this strange tale and stranger character, with no analogs in the traditional repertoire, must be taken seriously (not as just something Schoolcraft made up), which lends new interest to Longfellow’s interpretation. In this context, though of minor significance, it is worth having George Johnston’s original description of the gambling game, which Schoolcraft modified slightly for Oneóta, modifications incorporated by Longfellow.
Little Pine's 1848 History and Tradition, 2024
Legendary histories can be of great value if subject to careful analysis and comparison with othe... more Legendary histories can be of great value if subject to careful analysis and comparison with other sources. They cannot be taken literally. Little Pine’s 1848 “History and Tradition” as told to George Johnston, is the only source for what has erroneously been called the “Sturgeon War,” based on his framing device of an ancient mega-war which can be dismissed as apocryphal. However, Little Pine’s narrative makes for a good opportunity to explore related documents and shed some light on Chippewa-Sauk-Menominee conflict in conjunction with the Fox Wars. This is also a good model for scholars as to taking the opportunity of internet publishing, without the debilitating word limitations of academic journals, to prioritize primary sources, with all their complexities and contradictions.
Algic Researches Reclamation, 2024
Folklorists have long dismissed Henry Schoolcraft's Algic Researches and other of his works on "t... more Folklorists have long dismissed Henry Schoolcraft's Algic Researches and other of his works on "traditionary tales" as too heavily adapted. I have recently transcribed originals by William Johnston and others and have thus been able to objectively look at what Schoolcraft did and did not do. This has required an entire rethink, and we must now take much of the narrative material in Algic Reseaches very seriously as authentic versions.
https://picaresquescholar.wordpress.com, 2024
William Johnston provided the originals for Schoolcraft's Manabozho, the basis for Song of Hiawat... more William Johnston provided the originals for Schoolcraft's Manabozho, the basis for Song of Hiawatha, and other tales. They should have been transcribed years ago, but I have finally done so, and have extensively annotated, including showing Schoolcraft's changes. This is one of the seminal documents in the history of folklore, but more importantly, it allows for accurately placing these stories within the broader tradition, without having to guess what was Schoolcraftsmanship.
https://picaresquescholar.wordpress.com, 2024
George Johnston obtained "traditionary tales" from "Old Nabunway," chief of the Mille Coquin band... more George Johnston obtained "traditionary tales" from "Old Nabunway," chief of the Mille Coquin band of Ojibwe, on the north Coast of Lake Michigan, three of which were later published in issues of Oneóta (1843-44). One told of the origin of corn, the first segment of a multi-part story about Masswäweinini, a legendary Ottawa possessing great powers, set during the period when his people were refugees at Lac Court Oreilles, ~180 years previous, about which the narrator could only have known through oral history. Jane Schoolcraft provided a variant to her husband the same year of uncertain provenance but which contrasts with that of Nabunway, including by being a charter for abandoning the "chase" in favor of European-style agriculture.
Journal of American Folklore, Oct 1, 1976
Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Jun 1, 1999
Traditions of the Arapaho. George Dorsey and Alfred Kroeber. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Pres... more Traditions of the Arapaho. George Dorsey and Alfred Kroeber. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1997. xxx + 487 pp. Traditions of the Caddo. George Dorsey. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1997. xxiv + 133 pp.
Semiotica, 1985
Mythic and narrative discourse are commonly referred to as speaking in codes-a geographic code, a... more Mythic and narrative discourse are commonly referred to as speaking in codes-a geographic code, a kinship code, an olfactory code, an astronomical code, etc.-whose alphabets are drawn from distinct semantic fields (
Certain scholars in anthropology and education have recently suggested as an approach to combat s... more Certain scholars in anthropology and education have recently suggested as an approach to combat school failure for minority students the concept of cultural congruence-the idea that learning is best accomplished in classrooms compatible with the cultural context of the communities they are supposed to serve. Although this concept is yet to be fully articulated as theory or *
Western Folklore, 1984
... The quote is taken from the Dell Paperback edition (1968), p. 180. 9. Ibid. 10. ... It has be... more ... The quote is taken from the Dell Paperback edition (1968), p. 180. 9. Ibid. 10. ... It has become common usage within folkloristics since Robert A. Georges and Alan Dundes, "Toward a Structural Definition of the Riddle," Jour-nal of American Folklore 76 (1963): 111-118 11. ...
Journal of Nutrition Education, 1982
The Journal of Asian Studies, 1982
The Journal of Asian Studies, 1975
Anthropology <html_ent glyph="@amp;" ascii="&"/> Education Quarterly, 1999
Traditions of the Arapaho. George Dorsey and Alfred Kroeber. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Pres... more Traditions of the Arapaho. George Dorsey and Alfred Kroeber. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1997. xxx + 487 pp. Traditions of the Caddo. George Dorsey. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1997. xxiv + 133 pp.
Anthropology <html_ent glyph="@amp;" ascii="&"/> Education Quarterly, 1998
Drafts by Eliot A . Singer
The most (in)famous passage from Daniel Brinton's 1868 Myths of the New World is: 1 Under the nam... more The most (in)famous passage from Daniel Brinton's 1868 Myths of the New World is: 1 Under the name Michabo Ovisaketchak, the Great Hare who created the Earth, he was originally the highest divinity recognized by them, "powerful and beneficent beyond all others, maker of the heavens and the world." … It is passing strange that such an insignificant creature as the rabbit should have received this apotheosis. No explanation of it in the least satisfactory has ever been offered. Some have pointed it out as a senseless, meaningless brute worship. It leads to the suspicion that there may lurk here one of those confusions of words which have so often led to confusion of ideas in mythology. Manibozho, Nanibojou, Missibizi, Michabo, Messou, all variations of the same name, in different dialects, rendered according to different orthographies, scrutinize them close as we may, they all seem compounded according to well ascertained laws of Algonkin euphony from words corresponding to great and hare or rabbit, or the first two perhaps from spirit and hare (michi, great, wabos, hare, manito wabos, spirit hare Chipeway dialect), and so they have invariably been translated even by the Indians themselves. But looking more narrowly at the second member of the word, it is clearly capable of another and very different interpretation, of an interpretation which discloses at once the origin and the secret meaning of the whole story of Michabo, in the light of which it appears no longer the incoherent fable of savages but a true myth, instinct with nature, pregnant with matter, nowise inferior to those which fascinate in the chants of the Rig Veda, or the weird pages of the Edda. Now it appears on attentively examining the Algonkin root wab, that it gives rise to words of very diverse meaning…. One is the initial syllable of the word translated hare or rabbit, but the other means white, and from it is derived the words for the east, the dawn, the light, the day, and the morning. Beyond a doubt this is the compound in the names of Michabo and Manabozho which therefore means the Great Light, the Spirit of Light, of the Dawn, of the East, and in the literal sense of the word the Great White One, as indeed he has sometimes been called.
A Few “Intensive Comparative Method” Observations on the North American Flood Myth, 2025
This is basically a sampler and enticement for those interested in world mythology and the flood ... more This is basically a sampler and enticement for those interested in world mythology and the flood in particular to follow through by reading the 150,000 word full translation-study, which will undoubtedly need yet more revisions: https://picaresquescholar.wordpress.com/nenabozho-recreates-the-earth/
This is another of the William Johnston collected manuscripts from the Schoolcraft Papers. Althou... more This is another of the William Johnston collected manuscripts from the Schoolcraft Papers. Although conflating probably a couple centuries worth of conflicts under Saugemau, a powerful leader with great shamanistic powers, Chusco's tale is of tremendous importance for ethnohistorical research. I have added comments, making what connections I can, though probably the tip of the iceberg. His version of war with the Mascouten should be further impetus for seeking Mascouten archeological sites in NW Michigan.
William Johnston's "Manners and Customs of the Leech Lake Indians", 2024
This is one of the neglected William Johnston manuscripts from the Schoolcraft Papers and an impo... more This is one of the neglected William Johnston manuscripts from the Schoolcraft Papers and an important addition to ethnography of the Anishinaabeg. I have written a brief introduction, but the document needs to be analyzed in relation to the extensive related materials and interpretations
https://picaresquescholar.wordpress.com/ojibwe-tales-2/, 2022
When I started seeking versions and variants for a comparative study to accompany my translation ... more When I started seeking versions and variants for a comparative study to accompany my translation of Penesi’s Person Who Sembles a Bear, I discovered that, even though people have been writing about Algonquian shamanism for nearly 400 years, no one had bothered to compile and analyze the myriad personal and hearsay anecdotes pertaining to witchcraft. So I did. There are some interesting patterns.
Longfellow tried to make sense of Pau-Puk-Keewis as character for Song of Hiawatha: a rambunctiou... more Longfellow tried to make sense of Pau-Puk-Keewis as character for Song of Hiawatha: a rambunctious young man, exuberant dancer, gambler, reckless, arrogant, to the point of self-destructive behavior. Now that I have identified William Johnston as the “translator” and excised Schoolcraft’s modifications for Algic Researches, this strange tale and stranger character, with no analogs in the traditional repertoire, must be taken seriously (not as just something Schoolcraft made up), which lends new interest to Longfellow’s interpretation. In this context, though of minor significance, it is worth having George Johnston’s original description of the gambling game, which Schoolcraft modified slightly for Oneóta, modifications incorporated by Longfellow.
Little Pine's 1848 History and Tradition, 2024
Legendary histories can be of great value if subject to careful analysis and comparison with othe... more Legendary histories can be of great value if subject to careful analysis and comparison with other sources. They cannot be taken literally. Little Pine’s 1848 “History and Tradition” as told to George Johnston, is the only source for what has erroneously been called the “Sturgeon War,” based on his framing device of an ancient mega-war which can be dismissed as apocryphal. However, Little Pine’s narrative makes for a good opportunity to explore related documents and shed some light on Chippewa-Sauk-Menominee conflict in conjunction with the Fox Wars. This is also a good model for scholars as to taking the opportunity of internet publishing, without the debilitating word limitations of academic journals, to prioritize primary sources, with all their complexities and contradictions.
Algic Researches Reclamation, 2024
Folklorists have long dismissed Henry Schoolcraft's Algic Researches and other of his works on "t... more Folklorists have long dismissed Henry Schoolcraft's Algic Researches and other of his works on "traditionary tales" as too heavily adapted. I have recently transcribed originals by William Johnston and others and have thus been able to objectively look at what Schoolcraft did and did not do. This has required an entire rethink, and we must now take much of the narrative material in Algic Reseaches very seriously as authentic versions.
https://picaresquescholar.wordpress.com, 2024
William Johnston provided the originals for Schoolcraft's Manabozho, the basis for Song of Hiawat... more William Johnston provided the originals for Schoolcraft's Manabozho, the basis for Song of Hiawatha, and other tales. They should have been transcribed years ago, but I have finally done so, and have extensively annotated, including showing Schoolcraft's changes. This is one of the seminal documents in the history of folklore, but more importantly, it allows for accurately placing these stories within the broader tradition, without having to guess what was Schoolcraftsmanship.
https://picaresquescholar.wordpress.com, 2024
George Johnston obtained "traditionary tales" from "Old Nabunway," chief of the Mille Coquin band... more George Johnston obtained "traditionary tales" from "Old Nabunway," chief of the Mille Coquin band of Ojibwe, on the north Coast of Lake Michigan, three of which were later published in issues of Oneóta (1843-44). One told of the origin of corn, the first segment of a multi-part story about Masswäweinini, a legendary Ottawa possessing great powers, set during the period when his people were refugees at Lac Court Oreilles, ~180 years previous, about which the narrator could only have known through oral history. Jane Schoolcraft provided a variant to her husband the same year of uncertain provenance but which contrasts with that of Nabunway, including by being a charter for abandoning the "chase" in favor of European-style agriculture.
Journal of American Folklore, Oct 1, 1976
Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Jun 1, 1999
Traditions of the Arapaho. George Dorsey and Alfred Kroeber. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Pres... more Traditions of the Arapaho. George Dorsey and Alfred Kroeber. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1997. xxx + 487 pp. Traditions of the Caddo. George Dorsey. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1997. xxiv + 133 pp.
Semiotica, 1985
Mythic and narrative discourse are commonly referred to as speaking in codes-a geographic code, a... more Mythic and narrative discourse are commonly referred to as speaking in codes-a geographic code, a kinship code, an olfactory code, an astronomical code, etc.-whose alphabets are drawn from distinct semantic fields (
Certain scholars in anthropology and education have recently suggested as an approach to combat s... more Certain scholars in anthropology and education have recently suggested as an approach to combat school failure for minority students the concept of cultural congruence-the idea that learning is best accomplished in classrooms compatible with the cultural context of the communities they are supposed to serve. Although this concept is yet to be fully articulated as theory or *
Western Folklore, 1984
... The quote is taken from the Dell Paperback edition (1968), p. 180. 9. Ibid. 10. ... It has be... more ... The quote is taken from the Dell Paperback edition (1968), p. 180. 9. Ibid. 10. ... It has become common usage within folkloristics since Robert A. Georges and Alan Dundes, "Toward a Structural Definition of the Riddle," Jour-nal of American Folklore 76 (1963): 111-118 11. ...
Journal of Nutrition Education, 1982
The Journal of Asian Studies, 1982
The Journal of Asian Studies, 1975
Anthropology <html_ent glyph="@amp;" ascii="&"/> Education Quarterly, 1999
Traditions of the Arapaho. George Dorsey and Alfred Kroeber. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Pres... more Traditions of the Arapaho. George Dorsey and Alfred Kroeber. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1997. xxx + 487 pp. Traditions of the Caddo. George Dorsey. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1997. xxiv + 133 pp.
Anthropology <html_ent glyph="@amp;" ascii="&"/> Education Quarterly, 1998
The most (in)famous passage from Daniel Brinton's 1868 Myths of the New World is: 1 Under the nam... more The most (in)famous passage from Daniel Brinton's 1868 Myths of the New World is: 1 Under the name Michabo Ovisaketchak, the Great Hare who created the Earth, he was originally the highest divinity recognized by them, "powerful and beneficent beyond all others, maker of the heavens and the world." … It is passing strange that such an insignificant creature as the rabbit should have received this apotheosis. No explanation of it in the least satisfactory has ever been offered. Some have pointed it out as a senseless, meaningless brute worship. It leads to the suspicion that there may lurk here one of those confusions of words which have so often led to confusion of ideas in mythology. Manibozho, Nanibojou, Missibizi, Michabo, Messou, all variations of the same name, in different dialects, rendered according to different orthographies, scrutinize them close as we may, they all seem compounded according to well ascertained laws of Algonkin euphony from words corresponding to great and hare or rabbit, or the first two perhaps from spirit and hare (michi, great, wabos, hare, manito wabos, spirit hare Chipeway dialect), and so they have invariably been translated even by the Indians themselves. But looking more narrowly at the second member of the word, it is clearly capable of another and very different interpretation, of an interpretation which discloses at once the origin and the secret meaning of the whole story of Michabo, in the light of which it appears no longer the incoherent fable of savages but a true myth, instinct with nature, pregnant with matter, nowise inferior to those which fascinate in the chants of the Rig Veda, or the weird pages of the Edda. Now it appears on attentively examining the Algonkin root wab, that it gives rise to words of very diverse meaning…. One is the initial syllable of the word translated hare or rabbit, but the other means white, and from it is derived the words for the east, the dawn, the light, the day, and the morning. Beyond a doubt this is the compound in the names of Michabo and Manabozho which therefore means the Great Light, the Spirit of Light, of the Dawn, of the East, and in the literal sense of the word the Great White One, as indeed he has sometimes been called.
The distribution of folklore elements can be explained as independent invention, common origin, o... more The distribution of folklore elements can be explained as independent invention, common origin, or diffusion. Common origin means the element existed before populations separated and migrated to new locations. Diffusion means the element was shared across populations who lived in different locations. Basically: people moving versus folklore moving, often from one group to another in steps, so commonalities do not necessarily indicate direct contact. As with language, the process is complicated by peoples who had common origin in distant antiquity re-associating in latter days, so some shared elements may be ancient, some newer. The study of folklore distribution, in addition to useful cataloging, has primarily involved trying to reconstruct original (Ur) versions and place of origin (Urheimat), for example of Cinderella. Alternatively, Lévi-Strauss' Mythologiques examined minutia across closely related variants to uncover systematic correlations between building blocks, analogous to phonemes in linguistics, that correspond to environmental and cultural circumstances. For the most part, folklorists have turned to written an oral histories, historical linguistics, ethnography, and archeology (genetics is a future option) to correlate distribution with movements and locations of peoples and to examine how folklore elements are adapted to specific circumstances and conditions (oicotypification). However, it is also possible to utilize distribution of folkloric elements to shed light on, or at least raise questions about, historical movements and identifications.
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft's Family Pride As History, 2021
Jane Schoolcraft has been turned into a celebrity, even showing up as a focus in “academic” books... more Jane Schoolcraft has been turned into a celebrity, even showing up as a focus in “academic” books and dissertations, without new sources or improved analysis—projecting sensitivity is not analysis. In her mother’s culture, such attention would have led her to being disparaged, for putting on airs, as with her maternal grandfather for the exaggerated claim of descent from a long line of hereditary chiefs.
There is no excuse for recent authors taking the family story at face value. However, the most credible versions, evaluated in the context of other sources and of scholarship by those with actual expertise on the subject, do shed light on Ojibwe history and migrations, especially at Chequamegon in the 1700s. They also raise questions about the origins of enmity between Ojibwe and Meskwaki (Fox), which can be compared with Meskwaki oral history.
Reassessing Primary Sources Relative to Possible Potawatomi Proto-history in Lower Michigan, 2023
Archeologists and some ethnohistorians have moved from a weakly evidenced argument of a Lower Mic... more Archeologists and some ethnohistorians have moved from a weakly evidenced argument of a Lower Michigan Potawatomi protohistorical homeland to assuming this is a fact and placing them on maps when and where there were members of the Meskwai-Osaki-Macouten branch of Algonquian languages. This paper reassesses the primary sources on which the earlier argument was based.