An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians: Chronicles of the New World Encounter (Latin America in Translation) (Paperback)

~ Ramon Pané (Author), José Juan Arrom (Editor), Susan Griswold (Translator) "I, Fray Ramon, a humble friar of the Order of Saint Jerome, am writing what I have been able to discover and understand of the..." (more)
Key Phrases: principal cacique, humble friar, cassava bread, Las Casas, Island of Hispaniola, Pietro Martire (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Accompanying Columbus on his second voyage to the New World in 1494 was a young Spanish friar named Ramón Pané. The friar’s assignment was to live among the “Indians” whom Columbus had “discovered” on the island of Hispaniola (today the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic), to learn their language, and to write a record of their lives and beliefs. While the culture of these indigenous people—who came to be known as the Taíno—is now extinct, the written record completed by Pané around 1498 has survived. This volume makes Pané’s landmark Account—the first book written in a European language on American soil—available in an annotated English edition.

Edited by the noted Hispanist José Juan Arrom, Pané’s report is the only surviving direct source of information about the myths, ceremonies, and lives of the New World inhabitants whom Columbus first encountered. The friar’s text contains many linguistic and cultural observations, including descriptions of the Taíno people’s healing rituals and their beliefs about their souls after death. Pané provides the first known description of the use of the hallucinogen cohoba, and he recounts the use of idols in ritual ceremonies. The names, functions, and attributes of native gods; the mythological origin of the aboriginal people’s attitudes toward sex and gender; and their rich stories of creation are described as well.

From the Back Cover

“[This is a] highly accessible English translation. . . [of] the earliest work dealing exclusively with the indigenous inhabitants of the New World.”—Patricia Seed, Rice University

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Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press (December 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822323478
• ISBN-13: 978-0822323471
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #719,561 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On Arrom edition of Ramon Pane's Account of the Antiquities, November 28, 2002

By	Laurence Daley (Corvallis, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

An excellent job of narrating the recovery of lost material from existing documentation. The footnotes are well researched. The topic is fascinating, and the insights of the editors very useful. However, I would have liked to see an additional index with entry using English terms as well as the existing index of Taino words.

In addition, in analysis of a culture so intimately linked and so knowledgeable of nature as the Tainos, one should also take into account biological reality. For instance, it seems clear to a biologist that Mácocael, "he of the lidless eyes:' page 6 of the text may well be the great rainbow boa, Epicrates spp., Ma-ja, the great snake, since this serpent, like most boas, has lidless eyes.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ramon Pane An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians, November 28, 2002

By	Laurence Daley (Corvallis, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

An excellent job of narrating the recovery of lost material from existing documentation. The footnotes are well researched. The topic is fascinating, and the insights of the editors very useful. However, I would have liked to see an additional index with entry using English terms as well as the existing index of Taino words.

In addition, in analysis of a culture so intimately linked and so knowledgeable of nature as the Tainos, one should also take into account biological reality. For instance, it seems clear to a biologist that Mácocael, "he of the lidless eyes:' page 6 of the text may well be the great rainbow boa, Epicrates spp., Ma-ja, the great snake, since this serpent, like most boas, has lidless eyes.