Shots from the Stone Age

Folsom point - a characteristic projectile point of the Folsom culture

Shots from the Stone Age is the second crime novel by Tony Hillerman . Under the title of Dance Hall of the Dead , he was released in 1973 in English , in German for the first time 1,976th

context

Shots from the Stone Age is an ethno-thriller that loosely follows on from the previously published crime novel Wolf without a trail by the same author. The action takes place in the northeast of the US state of Arizona and the sparsely populated Navajo Nation Reservation there . The central figure is the police officer Joe Leaphorn, Navajo (Dinee, "people") and officer of the Navajo Tribal Police ( police of the Navajo Nation Reservation). The novel thrives on the tension between two completely opposing Indian cultures, the semi-nomadic of the Navajo and the "urban" sedentary of the Zuñi and their completely different religious ideas. Their representation takes up a lot of space, although the motive of the crime ultimately has little to do with it. For the reader, this opens up interesting perspectives on the cultures described, because Joe Leaphorn only makes any progress with his investigations in relation to the tradition of the Zuñi. In addition to describing Indian cultures, Hillerman also shows how "white" civilization penetrates Indian tradition, into everyday things or by making these cultures objects of archaeological - anthropological research interests. The "white" culture is viewed very critically:

" FBI men always had to look like this O'Malley: jagged haircut, cleanly washed, well-trained and unobstructed by annoying intelligence ."

people

• Joe Leaphorn, Navajo Tribal Police investigator . His office is in Window Rock, Arizona .
• Ernesto Cato, Zuñi, trains for the role of the dancer of the "Little Fire God" at the Shalako festival
• George Bowlegs, Navajo, his friend, very interested in Zuñi culture and religion. Both attend the same school class.
• Cecil Bowlegs, his younger brother.
• Bowlegs, their father, an alcoholic.
• Ted Isaacs, archaeologist and assistant to
• Dr. Chester Reynolds. Both do research on the Folsom culture .
• Halsey, head of a hippie - community , perhaps a drug dealer?
• Otis, member of the commune
• Susanne, member of the municipality

action

Joe Leaphorn searches for George Bowlegs after his friend, Ernesto Cato, disappears. George Bowlegs, on the other hand, tries to establish contact with a kachina, a spirit of the dead from the Zuñi religion. The two boys were on the excavation of Ted Isaacs, who there maybe excavations stolen. Joe Leaphorn manages to track down George Bowlegs. Susanne, who has been kicked out of the commune, accompanies him. But he does not manage to get George up in the mountains. The culmination point is the Shalako festival, at which Joe Leaphorn succeeds in solving the criminalistic riddle for himself, but without being able to obtain evidence that can be used in court or to arrest a perpetrator.

Relation to other works

With Shots from the Stone Age, Tony Hillerman continues a series he started with Wolf Without a Track . In both, Joe Leaphorn is the central figure and investigator. They are built around Indian culture. The sequel to the series is the detective novel The Labyrinth of Spirits (Listening Woman).

expenditure

• Dance Hall of the Dead . Harper & Row, New York City 1973. ISBN 0-06-011898-9 ( first edition ).
• Shots from the Stone Age
  • Rowohlt . Hamburg 1976, 1977, 1987, 1989.
  • Goldmann publishing house . Munich 1993, 1998.

Remarks

1. ↑ Written in the translation by Wolf without a track "Diné".

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Harper & Row , New York 1973. ISBN 0-06-011898-9
2. ↑ 1998 edition, p. 64.