The Origin of Table Manners: Mythologiques Volume 3 (Mythologiques Series)

"The Origin of Table Manners is the third volume of a tetralogy devoted to American Indian mythology. Unlike the first two volumes (The Raw and the Cooked From Honey to Ashes) which are devoted to South American myths the present one establishes relations with North America which is the subject of the fourth (The Naked Man). . . . In the course of the analysis the myths link up with ideas of more general interest. Thus we find discussions of numeration of morals and of the origin of the novel. . . . The Origin of Table Manners is thus of special interest to students of American Indian mythology although it contains ideas of interest to other fields and even to the general reader."Daniel C. Raffalovich American Anthropologist "An immense anthropological erudition is here wielded by one of the worlds finest minds and the myths themselves have never been taken more seriously. . . . Lvi-Strauss raises issues and then resolves them with the suspenseful cunning of a mystery novelist."John Updike New Yorker