Smoke from their Fires

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

ONE of the interesting features of this book lies in the fact that it covers the period of the first impact of white civilization on the native culture. The story is told by Charley, a Kwakiutl chief, born before there was much change in the native mode of life. Owing, however, to his elder brother's admiration of the white people's civilization, Charley was sent to school where he learnt English, and was thus able to give an account of his own life-history. He must have been a man of exceptional intelligence as well as possessing the good memory which characterizes peoples who have no written language and therefore have to depend upon oral tradition. Charley's story of his life is no mere catalogue of events, but a full and reasoned account that illustrates, as it goes on, the social and material culture of his tribe, and many of their customs appear under a new light with his explanations of their meaning. This method of presentation is interesting and gives one the feeling almost of personal contact with the tribe, but it has the disadvantages of a good deal of repetition and a sometimes cloying amount of detail. This, however, is probably unavoidable in the circumstances, as over-editing and precise arrangement would destroy its human touch. Smoke from their Fires The Life of a Kwakiutl Chief. By Prof. Clennan S. Ford. (Institute of Human Relations, Yale University.) Pp. xiv + 248 + 4 plates. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press ; London: Oxford University Press, 1941.) 18s. 6d.