The Language Encounter in the Americas, 1492-1800

For the first time, historians, anthropologists, literature specialists, and linguists have come together to reflect, in the fifteen original essays presented in this volume, on the various modes of contact and communication that took place between the Europeans and the "Natives" and on how the encounters affected the character of cultural, social, political, and religious life in the diverse societies of the Americas. A particularly important aspect of this fascinating collection is the way it demonstrates the interactive nature of the encounter and how Native peoples found ways to shape and adapt imported systems of spoken and written communication to their own spiritual and material needs.

James Axtell is Kenan Professor of Humanities at the College of William and Mary. Kathleen J. Bragdon is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the College of William and Mary. Norman Fiering is Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. Ives Goddard is Curator and Head of the Division of Ethnology, Department of Anthropology, at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Edward G. Gray is Assistant Professor of History at Florida State University. Bruce Greenfield is Associate Professor of English at Dalhousie University. William B. Hart is Assistant Professor of History at Middlebury College. Lieve Jooken is lecturer in English at the Economische Hogeschool St. Aloysius, Brussels, Belgium. Frances Karttunen is Senior University Research Scientist at the Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. Margaret J. Leahey is Associate Professor of Humanities and Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Gwynedd-Mercy College. Dana Leibsohn is Assistant Professor in the Art Department at Smith College. Isaias Lerner is Professor of Hispanic Literature at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. Jose Antonio Mazzotti is Assistant Professor in the Department of Romance Languages at Harvard University. Rudiger Schreyer is Akademischer Oberrat at the Institut fur Anglistik, Aachen University of Technology, Germany. Pauline Moffitt Watts is a member of the European History faculty at Sarah Lawrence College.