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ANOOKA'S
ANSWER A coming of age story set in the Stone Age by MARJORIE COWLEY HOW CAN THIS GUIDE HELP YOU? 1.The CHAPTER BY CHAPTER section is designed to provide opportunities for students to explore some of the information, ideas, and relationships presented in the novel. The questions posed in this section may be used for class discussions or homework assignments. 2.The SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES offer student participation in various projects that have been designed to bring prehistory to life. 3.Throughout this Guide, students are invited to compare the similarities and differences between the prehistoric life presented in the novel with the way we live today. STORY OUTLINE: Anooka, a girl approaching adulthood, lives with her clan on the bank of a river. She has never stopped yearning for her mother, who left the clan when Anooka was a little girl. Her relations with her father and sister are troubled, and the person to whom she feels the closest is the shaman of the clan. Anooka discovers a strange kind of mud while walking along the river and finds she has a talent for shaping the clay into small animal figures. Because her actions resemble carving, a practice prohibited to clan women, Anooka is forbidden to make her animals. Increasingly restless and unhappy, she is surprised by a visit from a mysterious and striking woman--her mother--who invites Anooka to share her life as an itinerant healer. Anooka must make a momentous decision: should she stay with her clan or join her mother in order to begin a new life. PREHISTORIC BACKGROUND: More than 99% of the four million year-old human span is prehistoric, or before the invention of writing. What we call history begins with the written word, a comparatively recent 5,000 year-old innovation. Anooka's Answer takes place 12,000 years ago, after the great herds of bison, horse, and mammoth that once roamed Europe have dwindled. Long before Anooka was born, her clan had given up the nomadic life to settle by a fish-laden river. Although hunting and gathering still play a role in sustaining the clan, their primary source of food is salmon, believed to be a gift from the animal spirits. CHAPTER BY CHAPTER SECTION: The people who lived in the Upper Paleolithic had brains as large as ours and were biologically indistinguishable from us. We can identify with them because we experience the same gratification in exploration, invention, and creation. Of equal importance, we share with Anooka and her people the full range of human emotions, such as longing, loneliness, fear, pride, envy, grief, anger, and joy. Chapter
1: The Lion Cub Waits Q: What
are Anooka's feelings toward her father? Q:
Why is Tor displeased with Anooka when he comes to wake her up? Q:
How does Anooka react to her sister, Nomi? CHAPTER 2: SINGING ON THE RIVERBANK Q:
What is Anooka feeling as she works alone on the bearskin? Q:
What is the relationship between Anooka and Durgun? Q:
What does Anooka find out from Durgun's silence? Q:
How does the sudden memory of her mother change Anooka? Q:
The Salmon Clan has created a life dependent on the annual arrival
of fish to their river. A useful discussion could be centered on
the clan's cooperative effort to secure food compared to the way
we grow and distribute food today. What can go wrong in providing
a steady food source for a community? Q:
Do you think that Anooka's discovery of clay and its uses was a
fluke or one based on good observation? Q:
Why is she apprehensive when she's modeling the clay? Q:
What has Anooka discovered about herself? Q:
Have you ever suddenly come upon something that you love doing? CHAPTER 4: THE DANCE OF THE SALMON SPIRIT Q:
What are Anooka's feelings when she can't decide if she should eat
with the girls or the women or sing with the children or the adults? Throughout human history and world-wide, shamans have
played an important role in their groups. Often they were healers,
dancers, musicians, and artists. They helped unify their communities
by telling or acting out important legends and stories, by being
an intermediary between their human society and the world of the
spirits, and by officiating at ceremonies. Q:
Ceremony was and is an important element in providing group identity
and security. For example, people join in celebrating an important
event or person, to grieve, to pray, or to give thanks. Name some
of our own ceremonies, both public and private. SUGGESTED ACTIVITY: Have groups of students create an "animal spirit" ceremony. The animal chosen should have qualities that have a powerful significance for the group. Consider the strength of bears; the dramatic strikes from the sky by hawks or eagles; the hunting skills and cooperative behavior of wolves and lions. Show how the clan symbolically uses these desirable qualities to reinforce its own group identity. The ceremony could include a flute or drum, dancing or singing, a shaman, and/or the presentation of a creation or "in the beginning" story featuring the animal chosen. Q:
How did the clan try to solve the problems that led to Lulaq's disappearance
and the difficulties that followed after she left? Q:
Was this solution satisfactory? Q:
Why does Durgun break the clan's vow by talking to Anooka about
her mother and brother? SUGGESTED ACTIVITY: By focusing on ancient human patterns and conflicts, we can see more clearly how all of us have developed ways to satisfy common needs and solve common problems. Divide the entire class into two clans that come together at an annual meeting (called the Gathering in the book) to solve mutual problems or individual disagreements. Difficulties could range from a dispute over hunting territory to the uneven distribution of other resources, such as water, fish, or flint. Possible questions for discussion and resolution:
Q:
What is bringing the sisters closer together? Tor tells Anooka that she is like her mother in being
disrespectful of clan traditions. Anooka destroys something she loves out of anger.
Q:
Feeling angry and estranged from her father, what does Anooka do?
Q:
What is she learning as she works with this new material? Q:
What qualities does Anooka bring to her clay work? SUGGESTED ACTIVITY: Give a small amount of clay to each student and have them model an animal figure and construct a simple story around it. The animal should be a part of Anooka's environment, such as wolf, fox, lion, eagle, hawk, deer, bison, hyena, or salmon. Reference books could be used for drawings or photos of the animals. Q:
Who would be the likely winner in this battle of conflicting wills
between Anooka and her father? In almost every society, there is an ongoing battle
between traditionalists who value stability and those who want to
try out new ideas or ways. Q:
What are Anooka's feelings on seeing her mother again? Q:
Why is Anooka surprised and shaken by Nomi's reaction to the news
of their mother's return? Q:
When Anooka senses how sick Durgun is, both undergo changes. What
are these changes? Listening to Durgun, Anooka begins to understand people
who have chosen loneliness; this new perception will help her make
decisions in the future. Anooka, yearning to share her sorrow over Durgun,
is rebuffed by her father and feels it is useless to try to change
him. Q: If you've been able to bring about desired changes in someone else, why do you think you were you able to succeed? Q: Have you ever tried to change your own behavior? Were you successful? Three transformations take place in this chapter:
clay hardens through firing; Durgun moves from life to death; Tor
gives up his role as a controlling father and abruptly gives Anooka
her freedom. Q:
When Anooka discovers that clay has hardened in her cave hearth,
what does she do? Instead of feeling victorious, Anooka is filled with
apprehension when her father gives her the freedom to go to her
mother. CHAPTER 15 & 16: NIGHT CREATURE and CIRCLE OF FIRE Q:
How do you think Anooka manages when the journey begins and she
faces a world of challenges new to her? In helping her father bring down the lion, Anooka
demonstrates courage that she wasn't sure she possessed. Q:
What is the message that Anooka silently takes in when her father
tells her that the old, sick lion was without his 'clan' and had
trouble coping on his own? Q:
How does the relationship between Anooka and her father change? CHAPTER 19: THE FORK IN THE RIVER Anooka is dazzled by her mother's bow and arrow, a
weapon she has never seen before. Because we pride ourselves on our advanced technology,
we are apt to judge other people without it as inferior. Bear in
mind that in most societies, significant inventions are made by
a only a few people, and then they are used by many. Q:
Anooka makes her answer to her mother's invitation. Why do you think
she decides not to go with her? Q:
What could be an indication of Anooka's new maturity? Q:
What has Anooka gained from her experiences? AUTHOR'S NOTE: Q:
What are some of the advantages in using a bow and arrow? Q:
Are "natural" healing remedies worth investigating? Q: Do you think it be would be difficult for a clan member to live the way we do today?
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© 2008, Marjorie Cowley. All rights reserved.