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The Desert Smells Like Rain: A Naturalist in O'odham Country
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this ebook
Published more than forty years ago, The Desert Smells Like Rain remains a classic work about nature, how to respect it, and what transplants can learn from the longtime residents of the Sonoran Desert, the Tohono O’odham people.
In this work, Gary Paul Nabhan brings O’odham voices to the page at every turn. He writes elegantly of how they husband scant water supplies, grow crops, and utilize edible wild foods. Woven through his account are coyote tales, O’odham children’s impressions of the desert, and observations of the political problems that come with living on both sides of an international border. Nabhan conveys the everyday life and extraordinary perseverance of these desert people.
This edition includes a new preface written by the author, in which he reflects on his gratitude for the O’odham people who shared their knowledge with him. He writes about his own heritage and connections to the desert, climate change, and the border. He shares his awe and gratitude for O’odham writers and storytellers who have been generous enough to share stories with those of us from other cultural traditions so that we may also respect and appreciate the smell of the desert after a rain.
In this work, Gary Paul Nabhan brings O’odham voices to the page at every turn. He writes elegantly of how they husband scant water supplies, grow crops, and utilize edible wild foods. Woven through his account are coyote tales, O’odham children’s impressions of the desert, and observations of the political problems that come with living on both sides of an international border. Nabhan conveys the everyday life and extraordinary perseverance of these desert people.
This edition includes a new preface written by the author, in which he reflects on his gratitude for the O’odham people who shared their knowledge with him. He writes about his own heritage and connections to the desert, climate change, and the border. He shares his awe and gratitude for O’odham writers and storytellers who have been generous enough to share stories with those of us from other cultural traditions so that we may also respect and appreciate the smell of the desert after a rain.
Author
Gary Paul Nabhan
Gary Paul Nabhan is an Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, MacArthur "genius" award winner, and ethnobotanist of Arab-American descent. His food and farming books include Food from the Radical Center, Where Our Food Comes From, and the forthcoming Jesus for Farmers and Fishers.
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Reviews for The Desert Smells Like Rain
Rating: 3.9545454272727274 out of 5 stars
4/5
11 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I enjoy this mix of personal encounters with Papago relating to farming and native plants, and his scientific explanations of what they've learned thru experience.I especially appreciate the extensive notes at the end of the book which give more details about his sources, and inspire further reading. If I lived in a desert I would be attempting to put into practice (and learning more details) the practices of the Tohono O'Odham. One thing I can do right here: The Papago practice to use rainwater instead of well water has been supported by a comparison study of the same crop raised both ways. The rainwater foods were higher in protein and other nutrients, and were more productive. The Papago saya the well water just doesn't taste the same. So this spring I put containers out during a rain, and drank the fresh sweet rainwater. They are right.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book has been on my shelves for a VERY long time, since we lived in Arizona (at least fourteen years?). I finally only got around to reading it because of a prompt for a reading challenge.This book made me wildly nostalgic for Tucson and made me wish I'd spent more time hiking/in the mountains when I'd been there. It was also a nice addition to having recently read Death Comes for the Archbishop and thinking about how cultures/agriculture/religion changed among indigenous peoples as Europeans and later white Americans pushed West.Despite having friends in Tucson who spent a lot of time with the O'Odham, I knew very little about them as a people prior to this book. I especially enjoyed the chapter on cactus wine, because, as Nabhan points out -- an outsider's understanding of the annual saguaro fruit harvesting is highly romanticized. Nabhan's representation is both grittier and more beautiful.I thoroughly enjoyed this.
Book preview
The Desert Smells Like Rain - Gary Paul Nabhan
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