DOI: 10.5176/2251-3566_L319.474
Authors: Prof. Penelope M. Kelsey
Abstract: This paper considers the portrayal of plant pathologies in narratives, specifically creation stories, originating in Iroquoian oral traditions and their intersection with gender formations. Texts considered span contact narratives by missionaries and explorers to contemporary accounts by Native peoples themselves. Linguistic analysis of names for dis-eased plants and sources of regeneration facilitates insights into the interpretation of these texts. Analysis of names reflecting arborescent and ethnobotanical relationships facilitates reader understanding of these texts. Both the comparative method and internal reconstruction are key strategies for better apprehending differences between names across time and narrative traditions. Languages analyzed include Huron, Mohawk, and Seneca.
Keywords: linguistics, plant, pathologies, gender, Native American, indigenous, Huron, Wendake Iroquois, Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, contact narratives, Jesuit Relations, dis-ease, regeneration, eponym, arborescent, Haudenosaunee, Hodínöhšö:ni:h, healing, regeneration
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