The Dawn of the World: Myths and Tales of the Miwok Indians of California

The stories collected in The Dawn of the World were related by the Miwok elders after the first rains of the winter season, usually in the ceremonial roundhouse and always at night by the dim light of a flickering fire. They constitute the religious history of the tribe, and from time immemorial have been handed down by word of mouth, writes C. Hart Merriam. Included are creation myths and accounts of the First People, beings who antedated humans, as well as tales about animals, death and ghosts, witches and giants, and natural phenomena.

Author: C. Hart Merriam
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 03/01/1993
Pages: 273
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.68lbs
Size: 7.99h x 5.35w x 0.62d
ISBN13: 9780803281936
ISBN10: 0803281935
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Folklore & Mythology

About the Author
A professor of anthropology at California State University, Hayward, Lowell J. Bean is director of the C. F. Smith Museum of Anthropology. He is the author of Mukat's People: The Cahuilla Indians of Southern California (1972).

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