article
Marie Norris's interpretations of fifty of Gatschet's Klamath chants and incantations
American Indian culture and research journal • 7 (3) • Published In 1983 • Pages: 55-63
By: Weaver, Roger.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article includes the texts and interpretations of 50 Klamath songs which were originally collected by Albert S. Gatschet and published in 1890. In 1979, Robert Weaver, an English professor at Oregon State University, gave a copy of the songs to an elderly Klamath women, Marie Norris, and asked her to comment on them, believing she had the experience and knowledge to shed some light on the meaning of the texts. The songs are very short, most are one or two lines, and one is four lines. Many are the songs of animals expressing a variety of sentiments including anger, shame, pride, commitment, awareness, happiness, courage, fear, sadness, and confusion. Some are conjurers' songs about power and curing. A few are philosophical, e.g., 'In the fog I am straying blind/ All over earth I am wandering.' Interpretation: 'I lack the wisdom to find my true self.'
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Informants
- Interviewing in research
- Recording and collecting in the field
- Music
- Literary texts
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Klamath
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1998
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Plains and Plateau
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Humanist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 1996
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1979
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1890-1982
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Klamath County, Oregon, United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- Roger Weaver
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 78643481
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Klamath Indians