Audiobook Picture-Writing of the American Indians

The author presents a comprehensive collection and analysis of American Indian picture-writing, demonstrating that these visual records serve serious communicative, historic, and religious functions rather than mere amusement. The volume distinguishes between petroglyphs carved on rocks and pictographs drawn on portable surfaces like birch bark and skins. Detailed geographic surveys cover rock carvings and paintings across Canada, the United States, Mexico, and South America, drawing comparisons with extra-limital examples from other continents. The work classifies pictographs into categories including mnemonic devices, winter counts, notices, communications, totems, and religious symbols. Particular attention is devoted to the methods of execution, the use of color, and the transition from objective representations to conventionalized symbols, syllabaries, and alphabets. Finally, the text addresses the interpretation of ambiguous characters, the evaluation of controversial and fraudulent inscriptions, and the psychological evolution of human graphic expression.