An Apache Life-Way: The Economic, Social, and Religious Institutions of the Chiricahua Indians

by Morris Edward Opler

Book Overview

Originally published in 1941, An Apache Life-Way remains one of the most important and innovative studies of southwestern Native Americans, drawing upon a rich and invaluable body of data gathered by the ethnographer Morris Edward Opler during the 1930s. Blending the analysis of individual Apache lives with the analysis of their culture, this landmark study tells of the ceremonies, religious beliefs, social life, and economy of the Chiricahua...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803286104
• ISBN13: 9780803286108
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 530 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

very good

This book is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Apache culture. It may not have the flow of novel but that is not the intention. This book is a glimpse into the lives of the fiercest and most honorable Native Americans that ever lived...the Apache.

An objective and accurate ethnology

Opler's book is the result of lengthy interviews with informants during the early part of the Twentieth century .He has quoted many of these Apaches verbatum without editorializing thereby providing an authentic picture of the tribal lifeway during the 19th century. The reader learns not only the ethnological facts but senses the feelings, values and emotions of these people. "An Apache Lifeway" remains the most definitive source of material cited in later publications on the subject. The book is easily readable because anthropological jargon is avoided.