Amadeo Rea: Wings in the Desert

The significance of birds to the native Americans resident from the Gila River south to central Sonora went far beyond the material. As Amadeo Rea’s rich new ethno-ornithology reports, many of the species recognized by the Northern Pimans bore great ritual and cultural significance as well: it takes seven pages, for example, to summarize the Great Horned Owl’s role, from omen of death to ghost to vector of “staying sickness” to source of healing. Black-tailed Gnatcatchers figure prominently and charmingly in lullabies, where the male’s dark cap is compared to the shining black hair of a Piman baby. And the Verdin is even accorded the status of a “power bird,” able to summon destructive rains and to lure people to sleep. Throughout the species accounts, Rea offers abundant direct quotations of songs, poems, and ritual orations, often in  transliterated Piman and in English translation.

In his introductory chapters, Rea regrets the “abrupt collapse in the biological lexicon” that took place just about the time his consultants were born; the generations that followed have undergone an “aggressive homogenization” that has cemented the loss of so much linguistic tradition. Birders and anyone with an interest in the cultural past of the landscapes of the Southwest can be grateful that so sensitive an observer and so sophisticated an ornithologist as Amadeo Rea has presented us with the remnants of what was obviously a rich and fascinating folk science.

My full review of this title will appear in Birding magazine later this year.