Description
The Edge of the Woods: Iroquoia, 1534-1701 by scholar Jon Parmenter, Associate Professor of History at Cornell University, offers a ground-breaking volume and intriguing new approach to the well-studied topic of Haudenosaunee's (Five Nations Iroquois) response to European contact. Parmenter applies sophisticated modern concepts about geography, space, and organization and the implications of these to the Iroquois nation occupying most of the area to the south and east of today's Lake Ontario. The century and a half covered is the period of early French and English exploration and settlement. This is an especially fruitful period for study. The European presence was not strong or numerous enough to break up the Iroquois system; though toward the end the European presence did start to bring changes. For the most part in this period, accounts by European explorers, traders, and settlers in conjunction with official documents of interactions and archaeological findings of later centuries make for a particularly detailed, accurate, and informative study. Organizing the content with the use of Condolence Ceremony, brings the reader to a fundamental understanding of Haudenosaunee worldview during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Numerous maps, charts, bibliography and extensive index add depth to this study. The author includes a list of Iroquois Settlements from 1600-1701, and a chart of Postepidemic Iroquois Demography, 1634-1701. Recommended.