Verbal Art in San Blas: Kuna Culture through its Discourse

This book, by one of the leading scholars in linguistic anthropology, concerns the verbal art of the Kuna Indians of San Blas, Panama. The author describes a rich and varied array of Kuna verbal practices, ranging from reporting, formal speechmaking and political oratory to chants and magical communication with the spirit world. This is a world in which all knowledge and information, from history and geography to the latest sport news from Panama City, is orally conceived, perceived and tra...