Este libro es un viaje por las tradiciones, creencias y costumbres de los nativos americanos a través de sus cuentos. Su tradición oral nos ayuda a dar respuesta al origen del mundo, creado a partir de un caos primigenio por dioses o animales humanizadores, capaces de errar. A su vez, nos acercan al estilo de vida indio, explicando el origen de las danzas o los rituales o la importancia de los elementos, como el agua y el fuego, para obtener los frutos en la estación del año correspondiente. Los cuentos cosmogónicos, que explican el origen del mundo, poseían un carácter mágico, motivo por el que debían narrarse en lugares y tiempos precisos, frecuentemente de noche y alrededor del fuego. En cambio, los cuentos sobre el origen de las cosas tratan de dar respuesta a fenómenos que sorprenden o asustan al ser humano como las mareas, el arco iris, el diluvio… La gran mayoría de cuentos tenían un fin didáctico para enseñar a los niños a sobrevivir en un entorno hostil y entretenerlos en los fríos y duros inviernos.

La sabiduría de los indios norteamericanos nos ilumina como una hoguera en la oscuridad, recordándonos que debemos regresar a la Tierra para vivir en armonía con ella y con nuestros compañeros de planeta. Esta antología recoge 365 inspiraciones -una para cada día del año- de jefes, curanderos y líderes como Toro Sentado, Alce Negro o Jerónimo.

This definitive edition of Columbus's account of the voyage presents the most accurate printed version of his journal available to date. Unfortunately both Columbus's original manuscript, presented to Ferdinand and Isabella along with other evidence of his discoveries, and a single complete copy have been lost for centuries. The primary surviving record of the voyage-part quotation, part summary of the complete copy-is a transcription made by Bartolome de las Casas in the 1530s. This new edition of the Las Casas manuscript presents its entire contents-including notes, insertions, and canceled text-more accurately, completely, and graphically than any other Spanish text published so far. In addition, the new translation, which strives for readability and accuracy, appears on pages facing the Spanish, encouraging on-the- spot comparisons of the translation with the original. Study of the work is further facilitated by extensive notes, documenting differences between the editors' transcription and translation and those of other transcribers and translators and summarizing current research and debates on unanswered current research and debates on unanswered questions concerning the voyage. In addition to being the only edition in which Spanish and English are presented side by side, this edition includes the only concordance ever prepared for the Diario. Awaited by scholars, this new edition will help reduce the guesswork that has long plagued the study of Columbus's voyage. It may shed light on a number of issues related to Columbus's navigational methods and the identity of his landing places, issues whose resolution depend, at least in part, on an accurate transcription of the Diario. Containing day-by-day accounts of the voyage and the first sighting of land, of the first encounters with the native populations and the first appraisals of his islands explored, and of a suspenseful return voyage to Spain, the Diario provides a fascinating and useful account to historians, geographers, anthropologists, sailors, students, and anyone else interested in the discovery-or in a very good sea story. Oliver Dunn received the PH.D. degree from Cornell University. He is Professor Emeritus in Purdue University and a longtime student of Spanish and early history of Spanish America. James E. Kelley, Jr., received the M.A. degree from American University. A mathematician and computer and management consultant by vocation, for the past twenty years he has studied the history of European cartography and navigation in late-medieval times. Both are members of the Society for the History of Discoveries and have written extensively on the history of navigation and on Columbus's first voyage, Although they remain unconvinced of its conclusions, both were consultants to the National geographic Society's 1986 effort to establish Samana Cay as the site of Columbus's first landing.