THE STORY OF LYNX by Claude Levi-Strauss, Catherine Tihanyi (Trans) ( 9780226474717 )

Item Details

Title:

THE STORY OF LYNX

By:

Claude Levi-Strauss, Catherine Tihanyi (Trans)

Format:

Hardback

List price:

£80.00

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£72.00

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10% off

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£8.00

ISBN 10:

0226474712

ISBN 13:

9780226474717

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Publisher:

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Pub. date:

15 June, 1995

Pages:

232

Translated from:

French

Description:

This analysis of the mythology of American Indians considers the many variations in a specific story that occur in both North and South America, but especially along the Northwest Coast. The author also demonstrates how centuries of contact with European culture have affected the tales.

Synopsis:

"In olden days, in a village peopled by animal creatures, lived Wild Cat (another name for Lynx). He was old and mangy, and he was constantly scratching himself with his cane. From time to time, a young girl who lived in the same cabin would grab the cane, also to scratch herself. In vain Wild Cat kept trying to talk her out of it. One day the young lady found herself pregnant; she gave birth to a boy. Coyote, another inhabitant of the village, became indignant. He talked all of the population into going to live elsewhere and abandoning the old Wild Cat, his wife, and their child to their fate ..." So begins the Nez Perce myth that lies at the heart of "The Story of Lynx", Claude Levi-Strauss's examination of the rich mythology of American Indians. In this work, Levi-Strauss considers the many variations in a story that occurs in both North and South America, but especially among the Salish-speaking peoples of the Northwest Coast. He also shows how centuries of contact with Europeans have altered the tales. Levi-Strauss focuses on the opposition between Wild Cat and Coyote to explore the meaning and uses of gemellarity, or twinness, in Native American culture.The concept of dual organization that these tales exemplify is one of non-equivalence: everything has an opposite or other, with which it coexists in unstable tension. In contrast, Levi-Strauss argues, European notions of twinness - as in the myth of Castor and Pollux - stress the essential sameness of the twins. This is one of the fundamental cultural differences between the European and Native American peoples.

Illustrations:

4 halftones, 3 maps, 20 tables

Publication:

Imprint:

University of Chicago Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

ANTHROPOLOGIE STRUCTURALE

ANTHROPOLOGIE STRUCTURALE 1 (PB)

ANTHROPOLOGIE STRUCTURALE 2 (PB)

ANTHROPOLOGY AND MYTH (HB)