Ishi In Two Worlds Summary

Ishi in Two Worlds depicts the life story of Ishi, the last survivor of the Indian Yana tribe, who emerged starving in the northern California town of Oroville in 1911 after being captured. Written by Theodora Kroeber—UC Berkeley graduate, writer, anthropologist, and wife of Alfred Kroeber (leading anthropologist during the time, and one of Ishi’s close friend) – the book delivers a humane study, and the valid, realistic past history which in turn explains the treatment of Ishi’s people. Among some of Theodora Kroeber’s works are her first book, The Inland Whale (1959), a collection of California Indian myths, and Alfred Kroeber, a Personal Configuration, which, for anthropologists, remains an astonishing accomplishment (Mandelbaum 238). Ishi in Two Worlds stands as the “most widely read book on American Indian subject and one of the most generally known books on the basis of anthropological observations” (Mandelbaum 237). The piece marks Ishi’s completed trip out of Stone Age into the Iron Age. Ishi in Two Worlds is made up of ten chapters following a chronological order. The book overall is divided into two sections-- Part One: Ishi the Yahi, and Part Two: Mister Ishi. In Part One, Kroeber paints the realistic picture of …show more content…
The museum became his home. During this part of the book, the author focuses on the influence and impact that modern civilization had on Ishi. Because Ishi actually never revealed his own private, Yahi name, the author explains how “Alfred Kroeber christened him Ishi, meaning ‘man’ in his own language” (142). Alfred Kroeber became a very involved individual and friend in Ishi’s life, he was the “responsible head of the museum, and in charge of the teaching and research programs in anthropology. In other words, he was the headman of Ishi’s village”