Adrienne Mayor. 2005. Fossil Legends of the First Americans. Princeton University Press, Princeton. 346 pages, and 100 pages of reference materials including extensive footnotes, bibliography and an index.
Independent scholar Adrienne Mayor's 2005 book called Fossil Legends of the First Americans has a lurid cover and a lurid title, but a remarkably tasty, scientific interior. The book is a meticulously documented collection of myths, legends, stories, and (to use Mayor's term) pre-scientific investigations by Native Americans of the paleontological resources of the North American continent. In this book, Mayor combines extensive library research with interviews with historians and paleontologists to reveal the depth of indigenous knowledge of dinosaurs and extinct megafauna they encountered, long before they encountered Euroamerican settlers.
Most of the book is organized by region. Chapters are dedicated to northeastern US and southeastern Canada, New Spain of Mexico and related areas in the southern US, the American southwest, the central prairies, and the high plains. An introduction sets the stage for these chapters, itself a tale about the archaeological and paleontological site called Big Bone Lick in Kentucky, investigated in the 18th century by members of the western Enlightenment such as George Gaylord Simpson and Thomas Jefferson; and long before that by Iroquois and Wyandot and their ancestors.
Most of the book is organized by region. Chapters are dedicated to northeastern US and southeastern Canada, New Spain of Mexico and related areas in the southern US, the American southwest, the central prairies, and the high plains. An introduction sets the stage for these chapters, itself a tale about the archaeological and paleontological site called Big Bone Lick in Kentucky, investigated in the 18th century by members of the western Enlightenment such as George Gaylord Simpson and Thomas Jefferson; and long before that by Iroquois and Wyandot and their ancestors.
Common Ground and Frauds
Interestingly, the conclusion, called "Common Ground", and the appendix "Fossil Frauds and Specious Legends" reflect Mayor's struggles with ethical issues that resonate throughout every aspect of archaeology today. Most working archaeologists today are aware that there are alternative explanations and beliefs about the sites we investigate. Indigenous peoples have stories to tell; and so do modern practioners of "intelligent design" and other recent spiritualist movements. Putting a value on one and not the other is a tough sell if you spell out the issues; because doing so means you must differently value spiritual things--something few archaeologists are sufficiently trained to do. Most of us, I daresay, believe that indigenous beliefs and stories enrich those of traditional archaeology, while creationists add little to the scientific record.
But even if as a researcher you choose to simply relate all of the stories, indigenous and modern, at what point do you allow alternate belief systems to impact your research? And, more to the point, who are we to "allow" anyone to do anything?
But even if as a researcher you choose to simply relate all of the stories, indigenous and modern, at what point do you allow alternate belief systems to impact your research? And, more to the point, who are we to "allow" anyone to do anything?
These are difficult questions to which I certainly don't have an answer--but I'm always encouraged (and helped in my own struggle) to see somebody thrashing around with the problem, even if a simple acceptable strategy isn't produced.
Fossil Legends is interesting, both for its detailed descriptions of the legends and investigations of paleontological data by Native American people, but also for the visible struggles of a scientist trying to reconcile one of the bigger problems of our society.
Fossil Legends is interesting, both for its detailed descriptions of the legends and investigations of paleontological data by Native American people, but also for the visible struggles of a scientist trying to reconcile one of the bigger problems of our society.
