Adolph francis alphonse bandelier biography examples

This attempt, by a middle-aged guy with a very European name, to imagine the ancient inhabitants of a high desert canyon is clunky—primitive, one might say—and limited by the tools and perspectives at his disposal.

But no, I must begin by admitting that I liked it. I like Bandelier’s effort to paint this world as completely as he can, contextualizing for a white American audience the things that make it different, and presenting it as a world that makes sense unto itself. He did a very thoughtful job. There is a great deal of tenderness here, and even a smidgen of subtlety in the variety of delicate family relationships and power structures, though probably inaccurate in most ways that matter. Like archaeology in that way.

The story itself is practically Shakespearean, and also relies heavily on the nineteenth century novel. So it does what European stories did well—painting bright individuals, characters with their own skills and quirks and histories, flawed and well-intentioned, who play things out to a reasonable end. Bandelier’s investment in these individuals makes it more perplexing when he trails off into generalizations: “The Indian is a child whose life is ruled by a feeling of complete dependen

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