The Autobiography of a Papago Woman free essay sample

The Autobiography of a Papago Woman In the latter part of the 1930s, PhD. Ruth Underhill headed a college-financed anthropological study of the Southwestern-based Papago society (Lavender). The result from the venture was a self-proclaimed â€Å"autobiography† of a Papago woman’s recount of her experiences as a member of the tribe. Though Underhill’s Autobiography ultimately fails to provide a comprehensive historical study of the Papago, it nonetheless provides a rich, fascinating introduction to the world of Native American customs and traditions.To begin, roughly one-third of the book consists of Underhill’s own experience as an upper-middle class woman attempting to immerse herself in a native, seemingly alien Native culture (University of South Florida College of Arts and Sciences). Because of her inability to speak O’odham, much of the Papago woman’s account (Chona) is based on the often inconsistent accuracies of translators who speak only broken-English.In addition, the constraints Chona’s age applied on her memory recall resulted in often repeated stories, which Underhill then cropped and chose based on the prem ise that the most interesting facts of Chona’s character were her crises rather than the events that were significant to Chona herself. We will write a custom essay sample on The Autobiography of a Papago Woman or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Underhill herself considers the possibility of several biases undermining the validity of the book as a historical resource when she admits this in her preface.Furthermore, Underhill’s weaknesses in approaching the study qualitatively are only matched by her ability to effectively describe many of the contemporary customs of the Papago tribe, most of which had prevailed over hundreds of years. She relates the tribe’s unwavering piety to relay animal stories only during particular seasons, the social conventions that govern Papago interactions, and even the tribe’s attitude towards child-rearing. She discusses the lack of thanks in Papago communication and that gifts are repaid with other gifts and are more than just a giving of gratitude.Finally, she relates the religious approach the tribe takes towards agricultural matters, such as the practice of rain-dancing and drinking of liquor to bring fertility to gardens, sparing none of its members from involvement in some capacity (Underhill 9-23). The aspects of Papago culture which are most prevalent in the novel are a patriarchal society in which men are given the evolutionarily traditional roles of hunting and warring and females are given the roles of cultivating, cooking, and being faithful companions to their counterparts.From a young age, the boys are instructed to run and the girls are instructed to assi st their mothers in weaving and gathering. There are other interesting aspects of Papago life that Chimona relates as well, including the requiring of a man to paint his face and separate himself from the tribe after killing an enemy, and the conviction placed in shamans or â€Å"medicine men† who are graced with the wisdom of wild animals (Underhill 42).However, impressive descriptions and accounts of a group’s customs does not necessarily create a well-crafted portrait of an entire culture, and Chimona’s chronology of events heavily lacks dating. Despite this, Underhill affectively relates the emotions that Chimona, and perhaps, anyone would feel growing up in a conservative patriarchal society that lacked both the industrial and technological developments that the rest of the world was experiencing in 19th century America. Works Cited: