States of Nature
This chapter focuses on Robin D. G. Kelley and Earl Lewis' standard interpretation of the tar baby story. Recurring themes in this interpretation include the affirmative emphasis on the independent culture of the slave quarters, construed as a counterbalance to the deadening routine of suffering and exploitation; the idea that stories like the tar baby were designed to instruct slaves in the methods necessary for survival, encouraging caution and modeling tactics of deception and misdirection; and the suggestion that there is nothing “distant and abstract” about the tar baby, as the story is grounded in everyday existence. This interpretation extends to twentieth-century folklore anthologies describing the vicarious satisfaction that slaves found by identifying with the underdog in trickster stories.
Hunters at the Margin: Native People and Wildlife Conservation in the Northwest Territories. By John Sandlos. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2007. xxiii + 352 p., ill., notes, maps, bibl., index. isbn 978-0-7748-1363-1 hc. $85 978-0-7748-1362-9 pb. $32.95) States of Nature: Conserving Canada’s Wildlife in the Twentieth Century. By Tina Loo. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2007. xxiv + 320 p., ill., notes, bibl., index. isbn 978-0-7748-1289-4 hc. 85 $ 978-7748-1290-0 pb. $29.95)
