Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians.

Title: Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians.
Creator: John R. Swanton See all items with this value
Date: 1931
Bibliographic Citation: Swanton, John R. 1931. Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians. Bulletin 103, Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
annotates: This source should be considered critically, and it would be best practice to contact CNO historic preservation staff to discuss particular or specific information.

The earliest published major ethnographic work on Chahta life and culture, citing an extensive range of previous written accounts by explorers, missionaries, and other colonial commentators. It shares the same pitfalls and problems of most early ethnographies: salvage ethnographic approach focused mainly on reconstructing past Chahta culture at the expense of learning from the present; ethnocentrism in prioritizing information or drawing conclusions, and when Swanton does draw on Chahta voices he relies heavily on a small number of "key informants" who had not necessarily been selected by other Chahta to represent them.
Subject: Chahta (Choctaw) See all items with this value; Chahta Culture See all items with this value; Alabama See all items with this value; Mississippi See all items with this value; Louisiana See all items with this value
Temporal Coverage: Postcontact See all items with this value; 20th Century See all items with this value

Item sets: Anthropological Sources