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Where Language Touches The Earth: Folklore And Ecology In Tohono O'Odham Plant Emergence Narratives, Jennifer L. Hughes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The historical and ecological relationships between the Tohono O'odham and the Sonoran desert landscape are expressed in the stories they tell. The Tohono O'odham have lived in the deserts of southwestern Arizona and northern Mexico for centuries, interacting with their environment and gaining intimate knowledge of desert botanical communities. Many of these interactions are dramatized in their traditional oral narratives. I have characterized those traditional oral narratives that illustrate and articulate Tohoro O'odham interrelationships with Sonoran desert botanical communities as "plant emergence narratives." These stories embody and express the reciprocal relationship between the Tohono O'odham and the plants they cultivate …