Kategoria BISAC: Social Science >> Folklore & Mythology

This is a virtual biographical dictionary of all the gods. Some of the defintions are pretty amusing, but the gods don't mind laughter at all. In fact, the evidence is strong that they invented it.

Ku and Hina-man andwoman-were the great ancestral gods of heaven and earth for the ancientHawaiians. They were life's fruitfulness and all the generations of mankind, both those who are to come and those already born.

The Hawaiian gods werelike great chiefs from far lands who visited among the people, entering their dailylives sometimes as humans or animals, sometimes taking residence in a stone orwooden idol. As years passed, the families of gods grew and included thetrickster Maui, who snared the sun, and fiery Pele of the volcano.

Ancient Hawaiian lived bythe animistic...

Mythology flows like a subterranean stream throughout Hawai'i. Rita Knipe has selected a number of characteristic myths and mythological figures from the rich pantheon of Hawaiian deities. As she retells their stories, illustrated by Hawaii artist Dietrich Varez, the transposition of such primal drama to the pages of this book becomes poetic theater. The dramatic plots are myths and legends chosen from the oral traditions of unique island people, but the underlying themes and symbols are archetypal and eternal.

Drawing parallels between Hawaiian mythology, universal patterns, and...

Among Marshallese the ri-bwebwenato (storyteller) is well known and respected, a living repository and transmitter of traditional history and culture. Here are ninety folktales and stories of historical events, collected and translated into English during the third quarter of the twentieth century. They include tales of origins, humanlike animals, ogres, and sprites--some malevolent, some playful. Many are presented in the original language and are amplified by extensive commentary.

Ancient Hawaiians lived in a world where all of nature was alive with the spirits of their ancestors. These aumakua have lived on through the ages as family guardians and take on many natural forms, thus linking many Hawaiians to the animals, plants, and natural phenomena of their island home. Individuals have a reciprocal relationship with their guardian spirits and offer worship and sacrifice in return for protection, inspiration, and guidance.

Hawaiian Legends of the Guardian Spirits is told in words and pictures by award-winning artist Caren Loebel-Fried. The ancient legends are...

For centuries, Vietnamese have sustained the history of their nation, both actual and mythic, through their folklore. These stories, passed from generation to generation, contain not only the national saga, but also fundamental cultural values that Vietnamese hold dear. Some stories, like A Daughter's Love, are imaginative accounts of early Vietnamese history. Others, like The Anger of the Waters and the title story, Two Cakes Fit for a King, provide colorful explanations of the world and how it works. The Story of Watermelon Island offers readers a glimpse of the traditional agrarian...

A virtuous young woman journeys to the Land of the Dead to retrieve the still-beating heart of a king; a wily corpse-monster tricks his young captor into setting him free; a king falls under a curse that turns him into a cannibal; a shepherd who understands the speech of animals saves a princess from certain death. These are just a few of the wondrous tales that await readers of this collection of Tibetan Buddhist folktales. Fifteen stories are told for modern readers in a vivid, accessible style that reflects a centuries-old tradition of storytelling in the monasteries and marketplaces of...

This is the most complete version of the Navajo creation story to appear in English since Washington Matthews' Navajo Legends of 1847. Zolbrod's new translation renders the power and delicacy of the oral storytelling performance on the page through a poetic idiom appropriate to the Navajo oral tradition.

Zolbrod's book offers the general reader a vivid introduction to Navajo culture. For students of literature this book proposes a new way of looking at our literary heritage.

This remarkable book lets readers hear Maya myths as they are told today in the mountains of Guatemala. First published in 1993, Breath on the Mirror is now available only from UNM Press.

"A fascinating literary and anthropological excursion into the mental universe of the modern Quiche Maya and their forebears. The stories and myths so compellingly recounted here turn our own world upside-down and remake it in the Maya image. Reading this, one can understand why and how Maya culture has survived five centuries of oppression."--Michael D. Coe, Yale University, author of...

Lozano reveals a portion of United States history that to this day goes largely unrecognized. He demonstrates how the first music schools of what today is the U.S. actually began along the Ro Grande Valley of New Mexico. In his seventeen...