Cost and Registration Information
Early Registration Price (May 7 at 9 am** – May 24 at 4 pm): $195
Regular Registration Price (May 24 at 4 pm – first day of class): $214.5
** Registration opens online at 9 am. Phone registration will be accepted starting at 10 am.
Members, seniors, and students get a 10% discount.
Seminar Description
The Skidi band of the Pawnee Indians, a tribe whose traditional homeland was on the Great Plains, is distinctive among indigenous North American people for its complex traditions involving the sun, moon, and especially the stars. This seminar will explore the band’s diverse beliefs about the cosmos and their expression in Skidi culture. Items to be featured include a detailed star chart that was found inside a Skidi medicine bundle—an extraordinary artifact now held by Chicago’s Field Museum.
Four sessions. E – $195, L – $214.5
Lee Minnerly holds an MA in anthropology. He teaches seminars at the Newberry on Old and New World archaeology, cultural astronomy, early science fiction, and the extraterrestrial life debate. He also volunteers at the Webster Institute for the History of Astronomy at Adler Planetarium.
Materials List
Required:
- A selection of shorter materials distributed by the instructor.
- James R. Murie, Ceremonies of the Pawnee, Part 1: The Skiri, edited by Douglas R. Parks (1981) available online at https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/1337/SCtA-0027.1-Lo_res.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y%3E
First Reading:
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For the first class please read the Editor's Introduction in Ceremonies of the Pawnee, Part 1: The Skiri, pp. 1-19.
This class is part of the Newberry’s Adult Education Seminars Program. Learn more about our registration procedures.