{"product_id":"if-this-is-your-land-where-are-your-stories-isbn-9780676974928","title":"If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?","description":"“We need to understand our stories because our lives depend upon it.” \u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eTed Chamberlin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The stories we tell each other reflect and shape our deepest feelings. Stories help  us live our lives\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eand are at the heart of our current conflicts. We love and hate  because of them; we make homes for ourselves and drive others out on the basis of  ancient tales. As Ted Chamberlin vividly reveals, we are both connected by them and  separated by their different truths. Whether Jew or Arab, black or white, Muslim  or Christian, Catholic or Protestant, man or woman, our stories hold us in thrall  and hold others at bay.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Like the work of Joseph Campbell and Bruce Chatwin, this  vital, engrossing book offers a new way to understand the hold that stories and songs  have on us, and a new sense of the urgency of doing so. Drawing on his own experience  in many fields\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eas scholar and storyteller, witness among native peoples and across  cultures\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eTed Chamberlin takes us on a journey through the tales of different peoples,  from North America to Africa and Jamaica.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Beautifully written, with insight and  deep understanding, \u003ci\u003eIf This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?\u003c\/i\u003e examines why it  is now more important than ever to attend to what others are saying in their stories  and myths\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eand what we are saying about ourselves. Only then will we understand  why they have such power over us.“[Chamberlin] dances between ideas, sources of ideas, anecdotes, giving the reader  flashes of insight and glimpses of the world that are both new and profound. . . . [He]  has made this tapestry so rich that it will be explored again and again.” —Hugh Brody,  author of \u003ci\u003eThe Other Side of Eden: Hunters, Farmers, and the Shaping of the World\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e“Chamberlin’s book, thought-provoking and humane, is a welcome addition to this  quest for cross-cultural understanding.” —Eva Tihanyi, \u003ci\u003eNational Post\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\"Chamberlin . . . bring[s]  together personal reminiscences—with references from sources as diverse as Chinese  philosopher Chuang Tzu and Canadian country singer Ian Tyson—to form a liquid,  virtually seamless argument that shifts between anecdote and high theory, often on  the same page.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Calgary Herald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Chamberlin . . . is a storyteller at heart. His analysis  is interrupted by wonderful personal anecdotes, and his prose is eloquent and lucid.  Writing with the same grandfatherly mix of authority and gentleness as Joseph Campbell,  Chamberlin will appeal to scholars and amateurs alike.” —\u003ci\u003eQuill \u0026amp; Quire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “There is  no easy way to describe this remarkable book. Every page is a cascade of rich and  original ideas, dazzling in their breadth and profound in their relevance. Baudelaire  once identified horror of home as a great malady of the modern age. In a literary  journey that takes us from the of the fires of the Gitksan to the forests of Africa,  from the songs of cowboys to the poetry of shamans, from science to the realm of  myth, Ted Chamberlin provides the cure.” —Wade Davis\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “J. Edward Chamberlin writes  with astonishing originality about the fluidity of human cultures\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eabout our pressing  need to acknowledge the paradoxes and contradictory truths that are apparent everywhere  just under the surface of events. His book reads like the distillation of a lifetime  of thinking and personal experience. It is a gift to the reader.” —Erna Paris, author  of \u003ci\u003eLong Shadows: Truth, Lies and History\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e“Ted Chamberlin’s book is delightful. It  tackles profound quations of cultural conflict, by reminding us of our own songs  and stories, revealing the extend to which vocabulary and language enable us to know  not only where we are but who we are. They give meaning to our lives; in them we  are blessed by imagination, whether we realize it or not. And by an understanding  of the songs and stroies of the peoples who lie beyond our borders, or even within  them, we can truly know who we are, where we came from, and what we—and they—may become.” —Thomas R. Berger, author of \u003ci\u003eOne Man’s Justice\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Long and Terrible  Shadow\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Ted Chamberlin’s wise and wonderful ruminations on the importance of stories  remind me of a gentle spring rain, penetrating and nourishing, awakening and encouraging.  His book makes our world a brighter and happier place.” —Modris Eksteins, author  of \u003ci\u003eRites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of The Modern Age\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e“In  our concern for the new global community, we often overlook those peoples and traditions  that were and are essentially local. . . . Ted Chamberlin’ s new book places us in the middle of the stories of [indigenous] peoples from Canada  to Africa to Australia about themselves and the world. Chamberlin has become our  literary bard through which these people are able to speak in their own voices. An  extraordinary achievement, one made once in a generation. It is not only a book that  all must read but, more importantly, one that we all must listen to.” —Sander L.  Gilman, author of \u003ci\u003eJewish Frontiers: Essays on  Bodies, Histories, and Identities\u003c\/i\u003eJ. EDWARD CHAMBERLIN is Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at the University of  Toronto. Previously Poetry Editor of \u003ci\u003eSaturday Night Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, he has worked extensively  on native land claims in the United States, Canada, Africa and Australia and has been  Senior Research Associate with the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. His books  include \u003ci\u003eThe Harrowing of Eden: White Attitudes Towards Native Americans\u003c\/i\u003e (1975), \u003ci\u003eRipe  Was the Drowsy Hour: The Age of Oscar Wilde\u003c\/i\u003e (1977) and \u003ci\u003eCome Back to Me My Language:  Poetry and the West Indies \u003c\/i\u003e(1993).Introduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt happened at a meeting between an Indian community in northwest British Columbia and some government officials. The officials claimed the land for the government. The natives were astonished by the claim. They couldn’t understand what these relative newcomers were talking about. Finally one of the elders put what was bothering them in the form of a question. “If this is your land,” he asked, “where are your stories?” He spoke in English, but then he moved into Gitksan, the Tsimshian language of his people -- and told a story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll of a sudden everyone understood . . . even though the government foresters didn’t know a word of Gitksan, and neither did some of his Gitksan companions. But what they understood was more important: how stories give meaning and value to the places we call home; how they bring us close to the world we live in by taking us into a world of words; how they hold us together and at the same time keep us apart. They also understood the importance of the Gitksan language, especially to those who do not speak it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe language sounded strange; it made no sense to most of the people there. But its strangeness was somehow comforting, for it reminded them that stories always have something strange about them, and that this is what first takes hold of us, making us believe. Recognizing the strangeness in other people’s stories, we see and hear it in our own.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOther people’s stories are as varied as the landscapes and languages of the world; and the storytelling traditions to which they belong tell the different truths of religion and science, of history and the arts. They tell people where they came from, and why they are here; how to live, and sometimes how to die. They come in many different forms, from creation stories to constitutions, from southern epics and northern sagas to native American tales and African praise songs, and from nursery rhymes and national anthems to myths and mathematics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd they are all ceremonies of belief as much as they are chronicles of events, even the stories that claim to be absolutely true. We first learn this when we are very young; which is to say, we learn how to believe before we learn what to believe. It is what we believe -- the second stage -- that is at the heart of many of our current conflicts. We love and hate because of our beliefs; we make homes for ourselves and drive others out, saying that we have been here forever or were sent because of a vision of goodness or gold, or instructions from our gods; we go wandering, and we go to war. Whether Jew or Arab, Catholic or Protestant, farmer or hunter, black or white, man or woman, we all have stories that hold us in thrall and hold others at bay. What we share is the practice of believing, which we become adept at very early in our lives; and it is this practice that generates the power of stories.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe need to go back to the beginning. We all want to believe. We all \u003ci\u003eneed\u003c\/i\u003e to believe. Every parent, every farmer, every builder, every cook knows this. We have to believe that the child will grow, or spring will come, or that the house will take shape, or the bread will rise. Stories and songs give us a way to believe, and ceremonies sustain our faith.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey also give us things to believe, which is a mixed blessing. The reality of our lives is inseparable from the ways in which we imagine it, and this closeness sometimes produces conflict and confusion. But it also produces some of our most durable myths, whose contradictory character seems to be part of being human and is certainly part of all cultures. The contradiction is inseparable from the nature of belief and the dynamics of believing, which always involve an element of strangeness and surprise.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEvery story brings the imagination and reality together in moments of what we might as well call faith. Stories give us a way to wonder how totalitarian states arise, or why cancer cells behave the way they do, or what causes people to live in the streets . . . and then come back again in a circle to the wonder of a song . . . or a supernova . . . or DNA. Wonder and wondering are closely related, and stories teach us that we cannot choose between them. If we try, we end up with the kind of amazement that is satisfied with the first explanation, or the kind of curiosity that is incapable of genuine surprise. Stories make the world more real, more rational, by bringing us closer to the irrational mystery at its centre. Why did my friend get sick and die? Why is there so much suffering in the world? Whose land is this we live on? How much is enough?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd where is home? Home may be where we hang our hat, or where our heart is . . . which may be the same place, or maybe not. It may be where we choose to live . . . or where we belong, whether we like it or not. It may be all of these things or none of them. Whatever and wherever it is, home is always border country, a place that separates and connects us, a place of possibility for both peace and perilous conflict.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcept for the idea of a creator, there is no idea quite as bewildering as the idea of home, nor one that causes as many conflicts. It is a nest of contradictions. The late-twentieth-century image of the global village seemed to sound the death knell for home as a particular place, much as an earlier generation claimed to do for religion when they said God was dead. But the report of His death was an exaggeration (as Mark Twain once said when he read his own obituary in a newspaper); and so it is too with the idea of home. God has certainly not disappeared from the scene, and nor has Allah; the world seems to be getting larger, not smaller; and home is becoming more important, not less.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCan one land ever really be home to more than one people? To native and newcomer, for instance? Or to Arab and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi, Albanian and Kosovar, Turk and Kurd? Can the world ever be home to all of us? I think so. But not until we have reimagined Them and Us.","brand":"Vintage Canada","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46299857748197,"sku":"NP9780676974928","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780676974928.jpg?v=1767729788","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/if-this-is-your-land-where-are-your-stories-isbn-9780676974928","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}