New Releases by Jamake Highwater

Nanautzin, chief orator of Montezuma, describes Mexico before its conquest by Cortes and evokes the character of Montezuma himself, torn between his dignity as an Aztec leader and his belief in the return of the white god Quetzlcoatl.

The popular writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry examines how people who stand outside of society because of their sexual orientation, physical appearance, ideas, artistic inclinations, or ethnic heritage, often achieve lasting and even profound influence upon the culture at large. He combines his own experience as a gay Native American with sources in the arts, literature, biology, psychology, and anthropology. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book presents a powerful view of the history of dance, contrasting its role in Western civilization with its significance in other cultures. Highwater--a renowned critic, author, and lecturer on art, theater, music, and dance--links the history of dance to cultural forces as diverse asKarl Marx and Elvis Presley. Beginning with the original, ritualistic, and primal forms of dance, he traces its decline into empty ceremonial forms while all along insisting that dance is a fundamental life impulse made visible in motion--a spontaneous transformation of experience into metaphoricmeaning. Considering the historical and creative context from which dance emerged, Highwater goes on to point out the specific contributions and cultural influences of such 20th-century dance giants as Isadora Duncan, Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson, George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Alwin Nikolais,Erick Hawkins, Jose Limon, Merce Cunningham, Meredith Monk, and Garth Fagan. Also examined are many newer artists, such as Bebe Miller and the Urban Bush Women.

Comments on some of the religious ideas of the peoples of widely different times and places throughout the world.

"Highwater describes the changes in nature as plants and animals respond to the seasons. Speidel''s soft paintings fill the pages and balance the strong verbal imagery that celebrates the ever-changing natural world. Teachers and librarians looking for a book on the subject will find this one appealing. Information about the red-tailed hawk that appears in each picture is appended."--Booklist.

Jamake Highwater, one of the most important, original and popular writers of our time, here continues a voyage into the realms of myth, art, and contemporary culture that began with his best-seller The Primal Mind and continued with Myth and Sexuality. Highwater, who has often been described as a modern myth-maker and visionary himself, has once again written a book bound to provoke, inspire, inform, and entertain as he explores and illuminates the links between the way society views its art and artists and the way our art and artists gaze back at us. Organized around the twenty-two cards of the Tarot Major Arcana, The Language of Vision presents a dazzling range of challenging and controversial subjects, including the transformation of art from an act of revelation in the service of the sacred to a purely secular activity; the puritan division of art into high and low and the direct influence of "popular" forms on contemporary artists; cultural piracy in a time of multiculturalism: the image of the homosexual as outlaw and the literature of transgression; iconography as destiny; the body as metaphor; imagination as political power and art and censorship; the reinvention of the past; and the triumph of the dream life. Daringly inventive and brilliantly executed, The Language of Vision reflects ideas and issues central to our creative and cultural lives today in the context of what Joseph Campbell called "the myths we live by". It is sure to be a rich source of debate, discussion and instruction for years to come.

Native Land formed the basis of a PBS series of the same name.

A fictionalized retelling of the Hindu legend of Prince Rama who, while in exile from his father''s kingdom, fights and wins a great battleagainst the forces of evil led by the demon king Ravana.

Anpao is young and Handsome and Brave -- a man any maiden would be proud to call her husband. Any maiden but Ko-Ko-Mik-e-is, that is, who calims she belongs to the Sun alone. And so Anpao sets off for the house of the Sun to ask permission to marry the woman he loves. But Anpao''s journey is not an easy one. Before he can reach the Sun, Anapao must travel back in time to the dawn of the world. He must relive his own creation, venture through The World Beneath the World, and battle the many magical mystical creatures of Native American legends. For only by doing so can Anpao discover who he really is, and rove to the Sun why he alone is worthy of the fair Ko-komik-e-is

Sitko Ghost Horse escapes from the dying city into the desert, where he encounters the dream world of a tribe that seems to be from another time and place. He is initiated into a ritual that requires him to verify his identity.

See "Homoeroticism" and "Homosexuality" in the index.

Sitko, growing up in a hostile white world that tries to make him renounce his heritage as an American Indian, finds refuge in the pictures he paints.

Alone and destitute after the death of her husband, Amana finds lasting friendship, love and disillusionment, and eventually moves to a trading post town where she strives to give her daughter and grandchildren a sense of pride in their Indian heritage.

A Santee Sioux Indian named Yesa, after being taken at age sixteen to live among white men, becomes a doctor and then returns to the reservation to live as an Indian.

Abandoned in the wilderness after smallpox devastates her tribe, eleven-year-old Amana acquires from Grandfather Fox a warrior''s courage and a hunter''s prowess, gifts that sustain her as she watches the progressive disintegration of her people.

Highwater''s theme is the end of Indian culture at the hands of the encroaching white race''s civilization. His tale spans three generations of Indian culture and the changes which take place.

As the moon moves across the sky, it observes the activities of an Indian camp and of the natural phenomena surrounding it.

An introduction to the achievements of 50 contemporary North American Indian artists. Includes brief biographies of each.

NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY 35,000 B.C. TO 1973 A.D.

A young American attorney and his British architect and artist friend journey by steamboat and mule through Central America, where they stumble upon the forgotten Mayan civilization. Their historic journey is the basis for Journey to the Sky.