The Emperor's Mirror: Understanding Cultures through Primary Sources (review)

The Emperor’s Mirror is a clearly written, methodical introduction to ethnohistory, aimed at the advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate student. It may well be the first such textbook on the market, a reflection of a growing interest in ethnohistorical research.

Barber and Berdan divide their text into three parts. Part I discusses basic concepts. They begin with the scope of the field and survey the many definitions of ethnohistory advanced during the past century. Their own conservative definition considers ethnohistory as an interdisciplinary field that studies past human behavior using documents and other sources where available, while incorporating historiography and cultural relativism, with a focus on cultural interaction. The authors are careful not to confine ethnohistory only to non-Western societies, as has sometimes been the case in the past. Part I also includes a brief history of ethnohistorical research, as well as short essays about interpretative frameworks, research topics, and other basics. Chapter 2 introduces what the authors call the “reality-mediation” model of ethnohistory, which focuses on the relationship between evidence and interpretation. This is an important concept for student readers, who need to be able to recognize at the outset the potential of being misled by documents and other historical information, whatever the source.

The nine chapters in Part II discuss the fundamental methods used by ethnohistorians. Inevitably, Barber and Berdan can only scratch the surface of such intricate subjects as paleography and calendrics, both fiendishly difficult at the research level. Fortunately, they have incorporated simple case studies at the end of most chapters to acquaint readers with the realities of comprehending and interpreting original documents and other source materials. These case studies cover a broad range of topics, from English paleography in India to Martin Frobisher’s account of Inuits in the Arctic (linguistic analysis) and personal names in New York’s early Jewish community (interpretation of names). The examples appear simplistic at first glance, but this tack is deliberate. The authors rightly attempt to give students an impression of the basic problem, on the correct assumption that greater complexity can be added later.

The later chapters in Part II treat such topics as the interpretation of documents, the changing of linguistic forms, and the analysis of place and personal names. The chapter about source analysis of documents is most interesting, especially its clever use of the papers discovered by W. E. Horn in 1932 from Pennsylvania, identified as forgeries from internal analysis, and a contrasting example based on a controversy about Tupinamba cannibalism.

Barber and Berdan cover a broad spectrum of methods in their well-rounded survey, including quantitative analysis (Iroquois conversion statistics from the seventeenth century) and visual interpretation (Huron and Timucua farmers), not neglecting their potential for creating stereotypes in the popular imagination. The authors’ statement, “Every picture that an ethnohistorian consults is a stew, with chunks of accurate depiction swimming in a broth of distortion,” drives a clear lesson into student minds in an era when digital enhancement is becoming a power tool for researchers (225). Chapter 10 rightly emphasizes the need to cross-check every source, whether documents, pictures, or maps. Chapter 11 stresses the use of complementary sources and analogy. It surveys such approaches as archaeology and oral tradition, using the well-known example of George Custer’s last stand, as well as a less convincing study of Mexican weaving. (A more specific example, like Mississippian religious beliefs, might have been more provocative.)

From methodology, Barber and Berdan move onto the strategies of research. Chapter 12 addresses the complex issue of research designs and the foundations of research projects. Although it contains little new for archaeologists, it will be invaluable to a neophyte ethnohistorian who will find little in the general literature for guidance. Chapter 13, “Working in Archives and Elsewhere,” is too superficial to be particularly effective. Anecdotes from the authors would have helped to enrich the impersonal...