By Juan de Fuca's strait; pioneering along the northwestern edge of the continent,

Book

By Juan de Fuca's strait; pioneering along the northwestern edge of the continent, by James G. McCurdy.

McCurdy, James G., 1872-1942 (Author).

Summary:

In this provocative and illuminating book, Marianna Torgovnick explores the psychology of our profound attraction to cultures we call "primitive." Whether located in Africa, the South Pacific, or the American Southwest, the primitive has become synonymous in the Western imagination with a range of emotions and experiences thought to be lost in modern life: reverence for the land and for nature; strong communal bonds; sexual plentitude; and, perhaps most intriguing, and ecstatic sense of connection to the universe and the life force. Torgovnick investigates the numerous ways we have turned toward the primitive out of spiritual hunger for such deeply human experiences - a hunger that could once be satisfied within the West's own mystical traditions but that often no longer can be. Brilliantly encompassing religion, art, psychology, literature, and other aspects of our culture, Primitive Passions offers new insight into our ideas of spirituality and gender, and, ultimately, into the hidden but vital parts of ourselves.

Record details

Physical Description: 312 pages including frontispiece (map) : illustrations (including portraits, facsimiles) ; 22 cm
Publisher: Portland, Or., Metropolitan Press [©1937]

Content descriptions

General Note:: Maps on lining-papers.
Formatted Contents Note:: "What an ectasy it would have been" : Gide and Jung in Africa -- "Something stood still in my soul" : D.H. Lawrence in New Mexico -- Loving Africa : memoirs by European women -- Dian Fossey among the animals -- "The bones and the blue " : Georgia O'Keeffe and the female primitive -- New American Indian/new American white -- Of drums and men -- Medicine wheels and spirituality : primitivism in the New Age -- Piercings.