The Bungling Host

"Daniel Clément examines the "Bungling Host" tale known in a multitude of indigenous cultures in North America and beyond. In this groundbreaking work he reveals fuller meaning to these stories than previously recognized and underscores the limits of structuralism in understanding them"--

The growing economic and political influence of Native American tribes has brought religious issues, once little noted, increasingly to the fore. Timeless in their basic structures, the continent's principal myths are now emerging as sacred histories that have contemporary significance. In this wide-ranging volume, John Bierhorst carefully delineates eleven mythological regions--from the Arctic to the Southwest and from California to the East Coast--presenting the gods, heroes, and primary myths of each area. First published in 1985, this indispensable guide has been updated to reflect the latest scholarship in Native studies. In a new Afterword, Bierhorst describes the recent impact of ancient myths in the arena of American Indian affairs and shows how Native Americans have successfully used mythology as oral evidence to reclaim land rights and to repatriate grave goods. Citing specific cases, he shows how new legislation and changing attitudes "have provided a basis for bringing myth to the negotiating table and into the courtroom." Detailed maps show tribal locations and the distribution of key stories. Indian artworks illustrate the texts and samples of differing narrative styles add enrichment, as some of the world's purest and most powerful myths are made more accessible--and more meaningful--than ever before.

New Voices in Native American Literary Criticism brings together more than twenty Native American and non-Native American critics working in the United States and abroad to explore the oral and textual expressions of Native Americans past and present. Many of the contributors represent a new generation of literary criticism: younger scholars and experts in the field who have not, for the most part, been published widely. The essays discuss Inuit writing, Hopi clowning, Huichol funeral oration, contemporary poetry in the ancient language of Nahuatl, and the narratives of Ojibwe, Koasati, and Shuar storytellers. Contributors also examine the works of Gerald Vizenor, Leslie Marmon Silko, Mourning Dove, Todd Downing, Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, and other writers. A final section of essays or "ethnocritiques" examines Western and non-Western model of knowledge and expression, and contrasting approaches to translation and transliteration. Reflecting a variety of disciplines - including anthropology, linguistics, and literature - this volume will be of interest to nonspecialists as well as specialists in American Indian literatures. More than ten tribes are represented, encompassing regions from South and Central America, Mexico, and the American Southwest and Southeast north to the Canadian Arctic.