About my statement here that Quite a few literary traditions admit only true narratives (what is meant by true is a more complex matter than it would be for us, but that's another topic), ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
comrade_cat asks, any recommended reading?
The other Toelken, folklorist Barre, repeatedly emphasizes that rather than asking what the myth says about what people believed to be true, ask what values the story is dramatizing. There are some great anecdotes on this subject scattered through his writings on Native American myth, which are among the best. For example, he asked one Navajo singer about a particular healing chantway, "Do you really believe the person is ill because they have red ants in their bloodstream?" The singer reflected and answered, "Not ants, but Ants"(Toelken's typographic rendering), and then, "We have to have a way of thinking strongly about disease." These attitudes aren't necessarily universal; there are literalists and fundamentalists in Native communities too.
Toelken, Barre (1976), "Seeing with a native eye: How many sheep will it hold?" in Capps, Walter Holden ed., (1976) Seeing With a Native Eye: Essays on Native American Religion.
---- (1976). "The 'pretty languages' of Yellowman: Genre, mode and texture in Navaho Coyote narratives," in Dan Ben-Amos, ed., Folklore Genres.
Wasson, George B. and Barre Toelken (2001), "Coyote and the Strawberries: cultural drama and intercultural collaboration," in Larry Evers and Barre Toelken, eds., Native American Oral Traditions.
and on dramatization of myth and healing, see also:
Levi-Strauss, Claude (1963) "The effectiveness of symbols," in Structural Anthropology.
Longer works but totally recommended for anyone seriously pursuing the topic:
Basso, Keith (1996), Wisdom Sits in Places.
Cruikshank, Julie (1998). The Social Life of Stories.
Cruikshank, Julie, Angela Sidney, Kitty Smith and Annie Ned (1990), Life Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three Yukon Native Elders.
Toelken, Barre (2003), The Anguish of Snails (more general, written as an intro textbook).
And lastly on the subject of what people really do believe to be true in myth:
Toelken, Barre (1987), "Life and death in the Navajo Coyote tales," in Brian Swann and Arnold Krupat, eds., Recovering the Word.
Allen, Paula Gunn (2002), "Special problems in teaching Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony," in Allan Chavkin, ed., Silko's Ceremony: A Casebook.
comrade_cat asks, any recommended reading?The other Toelken, folklorist Barre, repeatedly emphasizes that rather than asking what the myth says about what people believed to be true, ask what values the story is dramatizing. There are some great anecdotes on this subject scattered through his writings on Native American myth, which are among the best. For example, he asked one Navajo singer about a particular healing chantway, "Do you really believe the person is ill because they have red ants in their bloodstream?" The singer reflected and answered, "Not ants, but Ants"(Toelken's typographic rendering), and then, "We have to have a way of thinking strongly about disease." These attitudes aren't necessarily universal; there are literalists and fundamentalists in Native communities too.
Toelken, Barre (1976), "Seeing with a native eye: How many sheep will it hold?" in Capps, Walter Holden ed., (1976) Seeing With a Native Eye: Essays on Native American Religion.
---- (1976). "The 'pretty languages' of Yellowman: Genre, mode and texture in Navaho Coyote narratives," in Dan Ben-Amos, ed., Folklore Genres.
Wasson, George B. and Barre Toelken (2001), "Coyote and the Strawberries: cultural drama and intercultural collaboration," in Larry Evers and Barre Toelken, eds., Native American Oral Traditions.
and on dramatization of myth and healing, see also:
Levi-Strauss, Claude (1963) "The effectiveness of symbols," in Structural Anthropology.
Longer works but totally recommended for anyone seriously pursuing the topic:
Basso, Keith (1996), Wisdom Sits in Places.
Cruikshank, Julie (1998). The Social Life of Stories.
Cruikshank, Julie, Angela Sidney, Kitty Smith and Annie Ned (1990), Life Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three Yukon Native Elders.
Toelken, Barre (2003), The Anguish of Snails (more general, written as an intro textbook).
And lastly on the subject of what people really do believe to be true in myth:
Toelken, Barre (1987), "Life and death in the Navajo Coyote tales," in Brian Swann and Arnold Krupat, eds., Recovering the Word.
Allen, Paula Gunn (2002), "Special problems in teaching Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony," in Allan Chavkin, ed., Silko's Ceremony: A Casebook.
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