TURTLE TORTOISE, IMAGE AND SYMBOL: THE EAST. 4 OCEANIA AND AMERICA

De: JOHN NOONE

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

TURTLE TORTOISE, IMAGE & SYMBOL is published here in two volumes Volume One: THE WEST and Volume Two: THE EAST, and each volume is divided into four books. The WEST series is presented as a chronological sequence and the EAST series as individual studies of specific cultures. Together they constitute an in-depth coverage of the image and symbol of the turtle/tortoise throughout the world from the earliest times. Reference is made to specific artifacts, documents and monuments, works of science, literature and art, which may be viewed or consulted today in museums and public places, libraries and private collections, and the writing is intended for all readers with an interest in turtles, scientific or sentimental, for collectors of antiques, curios and objets d'art, and for everyone with an interest in the diversity of cultural history, in myth and religion, custom and art. OCEANIA & AMERICA is the fourth of four books in the series TURTLE TORTOISE, IMAGE & SYMBOL: THE EAST. It consists of three chapters, one dealing with Oceania and the other two with the indigenous cultures of North America and of Meso-America. The text covers the sea turtle's importance to the Pacific migration as a benevolent and protective figure associated with ancestors and guardian spirits, its shell serving for the production of ritual objects and regalia. The North American turtle/tortoise as it appears in artifacts from the ancient mounds, in pipes and rattles used for ritual smoking and dancing, in cosmological beliefs, clan systems and sacred bundles. The turtle/tortoise form of the Mayan and Aztec earth, its shell as drum and protection and its place as mother-creatrix of the Taino. The exposition is followed by bibliographies.