The Unwritten Literature of the Hopi

Hattie Greene LockettProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2

Word count: 175K words
Chapters: 18

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.The Unwritten Literature of the Hopi by Hattie Greene LockettAuthor: Lockett, Hattie Greene, 1880-1962,Language: English, Class: E011: History: America: America, Release Date: May 24, 2005

Editor's review

This book focuses on Hopi oral literature. The author, Hattie Greene Lockett, works as a recorder to organize the oral materials of a people without a written tradition, making it an early text in American history and ethnography. Project Gutenberg released an electronic edition in 2005 and reissued it in 2019, making it available to a wider readership as free public-domain material. Its value lies in preserving the shape of oral narrative and in offering a discussable sample for the study of Hopi culture, oral tradition, and early ethnographic writing. Readers should note that such early records carry the perspectives and mediated phrasing of their time and should not be taken as a complete presentation of Hopi self-representation; they are best read alongside later research and Indigenous perspectives. The text is in English and not long, suitable as introductory material for the study of oral tradition and Native American cultures, and also as a case of public-domain text in digital humanities settings.

Who it's for

A good fit for

University students studying Native American cultures and oral tradition
Researchers interested in the history of ethnographic writing and early recording methods
Teachers needing public-domain English texts for course materials
General readers with an initial interest in Hopi culture who can read English

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking contemporary Hopi self-representation and a complete cultural picture
Beginners hoping to read a Chinese translation
Scholarly readers expecting a systematic theoretical framework and detailed annotation

Reading tips

Read the introduction or explanatory passages first to understand the recorder's identity and method of organization, then move on to the specific narratives.
While reading, distinguish the recorder's paraphrase from the Indigenous voice and note possible rewrites and omissions.
Read alongside brief background material on Hopi geography and culture, so as not to understand the stories out of context.
After reading, compare with other Indigenous oral texts to discuss the common features and limits of early ethnographic records.

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.

FAQ

What does "unwritten literature" in the title mean?

It refers to the Hopi oral literary tradition, which was not fixed in writing, including stories, legends, and oral narratives. The author converted these oral materials into text by recording them, hence the emphasis on their "unwritten" nature. Readers should be aware that the process of textualization itself involves selection and rewriting.

Can this book represent the whole of Hopi culture?

No. It is a selection of oral materials organized by an early recorder, limited by the recorder's perspective, the era, and the methods of organization, and it presents only part of the picture. To understand Hopi culture, one should read it alongside later ethnographic research, publications by the Hopi themselves, and contemporary materials.

Is the English text suitable for non-specialist readers?

The text is not long and the English is generally readable, but it involves cultural proper names and oral narrative structures that may feel unfamiliar to non-specialists. It is advisable to learn some basic facts about the Hopi first, then read for general understanding of oral tradition rather than word by word, skipping over proper names as needed.

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

Hattie Greene Lockett Author · 1880–1962

Hattie Greene Lockett (1880–1962) is an author remembered for recording Native American oral traditions. Her best-known work, The Unwritten Literature of the Hopi, sets down Hopi stories, legends, and songs in written form, offering readers a readable text through which to approach this people's cultural memory. Beyond this single work, public information about her nationality, career, and academic background is limited, and details of her life cannot be reliably confirmed. Her writing is chiefly ethnographic in character, plain in style, and focused on preserving and retelling oral materials rather than on theoretical argument. The book stands as one of the earlier English-language introductions to Hopi folk narrative and retains some reference value for the study of folk literature and indigenous cultural materials, and it is often mentioned by readers interested in oral tradition and the cultures of the Southwest.