Guest speaker Markham Starr is our guest speaker presenting on ceremonial stone walls created in New England by Native Americans.
Ceremonial Stonework: The Enduring Native American Presence
on the Land
While archaeological evidence shows the first people in New
England inhabited the landscape for more than 12,000 years, newly landed
colonists from Europe immediately dismissed Native American spiritual practices
as pagan rituals to be destroyed or silenced through Christianization. Although
disease, war, and other troubles brought to the continent nearly annihilated
the indigenous population, the physical manifestations of Native beliefs,
wrought in stone, were often ignored. Still standing witness to the strength of
their spiritual lives, the stone objects they created remain scattered across
the New England landscape. This book takes the reader deep into woods now long
abandoned to rediscover the structures they left behind.
After walking hundreds of miles to photograph 8,000
constructions, the author chose 270 color images, separating the work into 25
categories in an attempt to understand their significance. While the exact
meaning behind them remains obscure, there can be little doubt of the overall
importance of this stonework to its creators or their descendants. Endangered
by modern development, Ceremonial Stonework sheds additional light on what has
been overlooked and ignored for so long, seeking to help preserve them for
generations to come.
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