A celebrated Native American writer and teacher presents Native stories and wide-ranging reflections on nature, spirit, and human relations. Horn shares oral tradition narratives passed down through generations of his family; shows how he, his wife, and their children seek to keep Old Ways alive; and contemplates the importance of seeking balance rather than power.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Horn's moving essays afford a window on the way Native American spirituality looks as it is lived. A generous, searching writer, Horn never descends to polemic to make his nonetheless sharp points about the submersion of native or "primal" values in ones called civilized. Civilized is not a positive term in Horn's vocabulary, wherein it indicates not "an acceptable level of social etiquette and sophisticated thought" and "clean and organized ways of living" but rather a disruptive and alienating philosophy. When civilized, Horn holds, people forget how to "flow on the River of Time and Knowing" and remain intimately linked to the holy universe. Instead they begin to objectify and ultimately to harm the world from which they spring. Horn poignantly shows how harmful this objectification can be and also how difficult but rewarding it is to live, moment by shining moment, in a primal relationship to the world. Patricia Monaghan
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant book on Native American issues in modern society,
By RichardC (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Contemplations of a Primal Mind (Paperback)
'Contemplations of a Primal Mind' by Gabriel Horn was a watershed for me, and complete revelation which I had long been looking for.As a non-Native American I was looking for a way to understand Native American culture, and particularly the situation Native Americans face living in modern US society. This book gave me all that, really showing the difficulties being faced to preserve the Native American culture when under the bombardment of modern materialism and 'cultural values'. It is a brilliant book, coupling those issues in with some of the very enlightening and spiritual aspects of the Native American culture. I strongly recommend this book to all non-Native Americans (as well as Native Americans). It gives a story of Native American issues in modern society, devoid of any stereotypes or wishful thinking. As a sequel to this book, I would give an even stronger recommendation to reading Gabriel Horn's first book, 'Native heart, An American Indian Oddyssey' (*****), which goes further into both the Native American spirituality and the struggles they face from the bigotry and sterotypes inherent of modern US society.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
