Alan Dundes defines myth as a sacred narrative that explains how the world and humanity came to be in their present form. This new volume brings together classics statements on the theory of myth by authors such as William Bascom, Jan de Vries, G. S. Kirk, James G. Frazer, Theodor H. Gaster, Mircea Eliade, Bronislaw Malinowski, C. G. Jung, and Claude Levi-Strauss. Rather than limiting this collection to classical Roman and Greek mythology, Dundes gives the book a worldwide scope. The twenty-two essays by leading experts on myth represent comparative functionalist, myth-ritual, Jungian,...
Alan Dundes defines myth as a sacred narrative that explains how the world and humanity came to be in their present form. This new volume brings toget...
The only Freudian to have been originally trained in folklore and the first psychoanalytic anthropologist to carry out fieldwork, Gza Rcheim (1891-1953) contributed substantially to the worldwide study of cultures. Combining a global perspective with encyclopedic knowledge of ethnographic sources, this Hungarian analyst demonstrates the validity of Freudian theory in both Western and non-Western settings. These seventeen essays, written between 1922 and 1953, are among Rcheim's most significant published writings and are collected here for the first time to introduce a new generation of...
The only Freudian to have been originally trained in folklore and the first psychoanalytic anthropologist to carry out fieldwork, Gza Rcheim (1891-...
There are literally hundreds if not thousands of books written about Judaism and Jews, but this book is unlike any previously published. It focuses on the topic of 'circumventing custom' with special emphasis on the ingenious ways Orthodox (and other) Jews have devised to avoid breaking the extensive list of activities forbidden on the Sabbath. After examining the sources of Sabbath observance as set forth in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and rabbinical writings, some of the most salient forms of circumvention are described. These include: riding a special Shabbat elevator, unscrewing...
There are literally hundreds if not thousands of books written about Judaism and Jews, but this book is unlike any previously published. It focuses on...
Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing documents the thriving folklore tradition that circulates in the workplace. Alan Dundes and Carl Pagter have collected more than two hundred and fifty "signs of the times"-the office memoranda, parodies, cartoons, and poems that daily make their way through copy machines, interoffice mail systems, and fax machines and are affixed to bulletin boards and water coolers. The rich vein of urban folklore tapped by this imaginative volume constitutes a great testament to one of the world's most prolific authors-anonymous.
The popularity of the items featured in...
Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing documents the thriving folklore tradition that circulates in the workplace. Alan Dundes and Carl Pagter have colle...
Anyone who has ever filled in a form in triplicate, taken an aptitude test, or been rebuffed by a form letter will appreciate the urban folklore found in this collection. Urban people as a folk are bound together by their unhappy experiences in battling "the system," whether that system is the machinery of government or the office where one works. The wonderfully expressive materials in this book-chain letters, memoranda, notices, and cartoons-touch upon every major controversy of urban America: racism, sex, politics, automation, alienation, welfare, the women's movement, military mentality,...
Anyone who has ever filled in a form in triplicate, taken an aptitude test, or been rebuffed by a form letter will appreciate the urban folklore found...
This provocative book by a leading folklorist offers a new analysis of caste in India, focusing on the rationale underlying the customs surrounding untouchability. Drawing on clues contained in two fascinating folktales, Alan Dundes goes beyond Dumont's classic Homo Hierarchicus in deconstructing the pervasive pollution complex that prevents millions of individuals from entering temples or drawing water from community wells. His graceful and erudite explanation of caste also illuminates the mysterious worship of the sacred cow as well as sati/suttee, or widow burning. The author concludes by...
This provocative book by a leading folklorist offers a new analysis of caste in India, focusing on the rationale underlying the customs surrounding un...
This book helps us resolve some of the mysteries and contradictions that evolved during the Bible's pre-written legacy and that persist in the Great Book today. Most biblical scholars acknowledge that both the Old and New Testaments were orally transmitted for decades before appearing in written form. With great reverence for the Bible, Dundes offers a new and exciting way to understand its variant texts. He uses the analytical framework of folklore to unearth and contrast the multiple versions of nearly every major biblical event, including the creation of woman, the flood, the ten...
This book helps us resolve some of the mysteries and contradictions that evolved during the Bible's pre-written legacy and that persist in the Great B...
Might there be more than Ten Commandments? Applying the analytical framework of folklore, Dundes (anthropology and folklore, U. of California-Berkeley) seeks to comprehend variant versions of biblical narratives. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Might there be more than Ten Commandments? Applying the analytical framework of folklore, Dundes (anthropology and folklore, U. of California-Berkeley...
International folkloristics is a worldwide discipline in which scholars study various forms of folklore ranging from myth, folktale, and legend to custom and belief. Twenty classic essays, beginning with a piece by Jacob Grimm, reveal the evolving theoretical underpinnings of folkloristics from its nineteenth century origins to its academic coming-of-age in the twentieth century. Each piece is prefaced by extensive editorial introductions placing them in a historical and intellectual context. The twenty essays presented here, including several never published previously in English, will be...
International folkloristics is a worldwide discipline in which scholars study various forms of folklore ranging from myth, folktale, and legend to cus...
