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Ghost Dance Song

  • Item identifier: 24-132.13
  • Date: Sep 1949
  • Contributors: Oscar McDaniel (consultant); Peter Abraham (researcher)
  • Language: Patwin (pwi)
  • Description: Perhaps this Ghost Dance song pertains not to the messianic movement that reached California in the 1870s and again in the 1890s but rather to the indigenous Ghost (or Devil) Ceremony as described in Barrett (1917:403-23), Powers (1877:158-60 and 193-94), and Kroeber (1925:263-65). On the other hand, Goldschmidt does point out that the Nevada-influenced cult survived into the 1930s among the neighoring Nomlaki (1978:342). The vocal style (microtonal inflections, no pairing or phrases, etc.) is distinctly Californian and not at all typical of great basin Ghost Dance songs (RK). Distributed on California Indian Music Project, North-central region, tape 10, side A.
  • Availability: Digital content is not available. Please write to pahma-mediapermissions@berkeley.edu. Please specify as much information as possible about the recordings you are interested in, including the Item number (24-132.13).
  • Collection: The Peter Abraham collection of Pomo and Patwin sound recordings
  • Repository: Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology
  • Status: deaccessioned
  • Suggested citation: Ghost Dance Song, 24-132.13, in "The Peter Abraham collection of Pomo and Patwin sound recordings", Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/14013.