March 25, 1916: Ishi Dies, a World Ends
When I was a child, I read Theodora Kroeber's Ishi: Last of His Tribe about the man her husband Alfred, an anthropologist, had studied for nearly five years. [The Kroebers' daughter may be familiar to science fiction and fantasy fans, as Kroeber would be the 'K' in Ursula K. LeGuin.] Ishi was not the man's name; that was never discovered, as it was apparently taboo in his culture to utter one's own name. But when he was found he was considered a 'wild man', and only the anthropologists realised he was the last speaker of an nearly-extinct language and quite possibly the last of his people. Two of the Kroebers' sons went on to become scholars as well (a linguist and a professor of comparative literatures) and have edited a book called Ishi in Three Centuries.
Who Ishi was and exactly of what tribe is a point for discussion, but it remains to be said that when he died of tuberculosis, a way of life died, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment