The Jealous Potter [Paperback]

Claude Levi-Strauss (Author), Benedicte Chorier (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0226474828 | ISBN-13: 978-0226474823

As Lévi-Strauss freely explores the mythologies of the Americas, with occasional incursions into European and Japanese folklore, tales of sloths and squirrels interweave with discussions of Freud, Saussure, "signification," and plays by Sophocles and Labiche. Lévi-Strauss critiques psychoanalytic interpretation and defends the interpretive powers of structuralism.

"Electrifying. . . . A brilliant demonstration of structural analysis in action. . . . Can be read with pleasure and profit by anyone interested in that aspect of self-discovery that comes through knowledge of the universal and timeless myths that live on in all of us."—Jonathan Sharp, San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle

"A characteristic tour de force. . . . One remains awed by him."—Colin Thubron, Sunday Times

"With all its epistemological depth, the book reads at times like a Simenon or a Lewis Carroll, fusing concise methodology with mastery of style."—Bernadette Bucher, American Ethnologist

"[An] engagingly provocative exploration of mythology in the Americas. . . . Always a good read."—Choice

"A playful, highly entertaining book, fluently and elegantly translated by Bénédicte Chorier."—Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, New York Times Book Review

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Iroquois mythology, comets or meteors may trigger a husband to eject his wife through a hole as if she were excrement. While psychoanalysts could have a field day with this belief, French anthropologist Levi-Strauss insists that Freudians err in deciphering myths as if they employed a single symbolic code. Sexual, cosmic, zoological and technological meanings usually overlap, he claims. As proof, Levi-Strauss investigates the multiple associations of symbols common to North and South American Indian tales. Potters' kilns, fireballs, the sloth and the goatsucker all figure in a hemisphere-wide myth system pieced together by the eminent structuralist in this dense study. Themes dear to psychoanalysisoedipal conflict, oral sadism, anal retentivenessare shown to be common knowledge among Amerindian tribes. Levi-Strauss also uncovers a myth of the Jivaro Indians of the Andes that anticipates Freud's scenario of the primal horde in Totem and Taboo.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Levi-Strauss calls his latest work "playful exercise" in this recapitulation of major structuralist theories. Using examples from the mythologies of mostly the Americas, and references to the works of Sebillot, Saussure, and Freud, Levi-Strauss shows the "tranformational relationships" and "symbolic equivalences" which obtain in myths from various regions. The author argues that culture-bearers unconsciously operate through codes because "every myth confronts a problem . . . " and "each code brings out latent properties in a given realm of experience . . . ." An accessible format; for academic libraries. Winnie Lambrecht, Brown Univ., Providence, R.I.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (December 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226474828
• ISBN-13: 978-0226474823
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,791,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond the Birdnester, January 5, 2006

By 

Charles E. Nydorf (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jealous Potter (Paperback)

Towards the end of "The Naked Man", the last volume of "Mythologies", a series that Levi-Strauss dedicated to following up on all the transformations of a single myth, which he calls "the Birdnester", throughout the indigenous cultures of the Americas, the author tackles a vexing question. Is it possible that his transformations have been defined so broadly that any myth at all can be considered a form of the Birdnester? His reply is that the native cultures of the Americas have another complex of myths which cannot be treated as simple variants of the Birdnester and which he therefore omitted from his study. Whereas the Birdnester myths present a theory of the origin of cooking fire, the myths in this other series present a theory of the origin of potter's fire. In the "Jealous Potter", Levi-Strauss finally presents this second group of myths. As always with Levi-Strauss, the reader is in for a fanstastic trip with innumerable insights into human cultures. One difficulty in reading Levi-Strauss: He mentions a a dazzling array of native groups and it is difficult to keep them all straight. I have found that the best solution is to consult the maps in John Bierhost's survey of American mythology. Here as elsewhere, Levi-Strauss's work provides a wide prospect of future studies. For example, one would like to know how the two complexes of myths are distributed in the Americas (and even beyond them). This would certainly shed light on cultural history of the Americas and the world.