A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North

Yarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy), 1840-1929Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4
Word count
431K words
Chapters
44

Tags

English Originals Culture AnthropologyLife and DeathRitual StudiesAcademic StudyFieldworkFuneral CustomsTraditional EtiquetteNative North AmericansFolk CustomsEthnography

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the NorthAuthor: Yarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy), 1840-1929,Language: English, Class: E011: History: America: America, Release Date: Mar 1, 2004

Editor's review

This is H. C. Yarrow's further study of North American mortuary customs, belonging to the category of early ethnography and folklore records. Its value lies first in its documentary nature: it records details of burial customs as observed by a particular era's observers, providing primary reference for the study of North American history, folklore, and early anthropological writing. Its limitations must also be recognized—nineteenth-century recorders brought their own cultural perspectives and classificatory frameworks, and their descriptions and judgments need to be examined in historical context. Today it is better read as historical source material and a text in the history of scholarship than as a complete, objective representation of any one people. The text is a public-domain English document, easy to search and cite; read alongside contemporary ethnography or archaeological research, it makes the methods and biases of early records clearer.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read the introduction or opening first to understand the author's scope and classification method, then move to specific entries.
  2. While reading, mark descriptive content and the author's judgments, distinguishing factual records from period bias.
  3. Read alongside contemporary ethnography or archaeological research to test the reliability of early records.
  4. If using it for citation in writing, check the original source and context first to avoid taking passages out of context.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44

FAQ

Does this book still have reading value today? Yes, but its value lies mainly in historical source material and the history of scholarship. It records burial customs as observed by a particular era's observers and can be used to study the writing methods and perspectival limitations of early ethnography. If you need authoritative contemporary conclusions, consult modern research for comparison; do not treat this book as the sole basis.
Are the records in the book objective and reliable? They require cautious treatment. Nineteenth-century recorders brought their own cultural frameworks and classificatory habits, and description may be mixed with judgment. Readers should distinguish concrete records from period evaluations and cross-check with other materials; the book cannot be taken directly as a complete representation of any one people.
How can one avoid misreading early ethnographic material? It helps to first understand the author's historical background and purpose, mark the boundary between description and evaluation while reading, and then compare with contemporary research to see which records have been confirmed and which revised. Treating the book as material for the history of scholarship rather than as a conclusive text reduces the risk of mistaking early bias for fact.
What should be noted when citing public-domain English documents? Public-domain e-books have brief version information; when citing, check the original title, chapter, and paragraph location, and note the source of the electronic version used. Avoid citing from search fragments alone, and for important claims it is best to return to the context to confirm meaning, preventing distortion.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Yarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy), 1840-1929 Author · American · 1840–1929

Yarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy Yarrow, 1840–1929) was an American military physician and ethnologist. Public information about him is limited, and many details of his life are difficult to verify, yet he left noteworthy records in the field of ethnology. Two of his works are held in this collection, both centering on the mortuary customs of the North American Indians: An Introduction to the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians and A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North. Judging from their titles and subject matter, he emphasized field observation and the classification of burial customs, writing in an early ethnographic mode that favors the orderly presentation of materials and factual description over theoretical exposition. Such work offers later scholars firsthand material for the study of Native American customs and reflects the observational perspective on other cultures characteristic of the nineteenth-century American military-physician and naturalist tradition.