The bungling host : the nature of indigenous oral literature /

The Bungling Host motif appears in countless indigenous cultures in North America and beyond. In this groundbreaking work, Daniel Clément has gathered more than four hundred North American variants of the story to examine how myths acquire meaning for their indigenous users and explores how seemingl...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Clément, Daniel, 1951- (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2018]
Subjects:
Description
Summary:The Bungling Host motif appears in countless indigenous cultures in North America and beyond. In this groundbreaking work, Daniel Clément has gathered more than four hundred North American variants of the story to examine how myths acquire meaning for their indigenous users and explores how seemingly absurd narratives can prove to be a rich source of meaning when understood within the appropriate context. In analyzing the Bungling Host tales, Clément considers not only material culture but also social, economic and cultural life, Native knowledge of the environment and the world of plants and animals. Clément's analysis uncovers four operational modes in myth construction and clarifies the relationship between mythology and science. Ultimately he demonstrates how science may have developed out of an operational mode that already existed in the mythological mind.
Physical Description:xxiv, 543 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 509-543).
ISBN:9781496200877
149620087X
9781496206053
1496206053