Way of the Animal Powers, Part 2: Mythologies of the Great Hunt (Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Volume I) [Hardcover]

Joseph Campbell (Author)

Book Description

Series: Historical Atlas of World Mythology | Publication Date: November 1988

Hard cover with dust jacket, from the famed series by spiritual anthropologist Joseph Campbell.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Harpercollins (November 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060551496
• ISBN-13: 978-0060551490
• Product Dimensions: 14 x 11 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,749,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The magnum opus of one of the world's leading scholars on comparative mythology, August 20, 2007

By 

Darby - See all my reviews

This review is from: Way of the Animal Powers, Part 2: Mythologies of the Great Hunt (Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Volume I) (Hardcover)

[Review written in May 2004]

Series Review: Historical Atlas of World Mythology

Where to begin ?

Joseph Campbell, without exaggeration, is probably one of the 100 greatest scholars of the 20th century. He was a genius, a polymath, a world-travelling polygot, a brilliant teacher and a master storyteller - all in one. On top of that, he was also one of those exceedingly rare individuals who was able to stand astride the disparate realms of both academia and mainstram culture with equal aplomb ... and be warmly embraced by both. Take a brief glance at the list of his works (at the Joseph Campbell Foundation, or my own site) and you can't help but be amazed that a lone human being could cover such breadth, and such depth, in such a broad field in a single lifetime.

His influences have been far reaching and profound - George Lucas considers himself to be a student of Campbell, and openly credits him as the source inspiration for the whole Jedi Knight / Force motif in Star Wars.

Campbell's two most well known works (amongst the general public anyway) are "Hero with a Thousand Faces" and "The Power of Myth". However, among academics, his magnum opus is considered to be The Historical Atlas of World Mythology (henceforth 'HAoWM'). It is the crowning achievement of a long and incredibly prolific career - much of it published posthumously, shortly after his death.

It's a 4 volume book (actually it's 2 volumes, each with 2 parts) published in a single-spaced tri-column oversize 11" x 16+" softcover format, and it's packed to the gills with hundreds of numbered footnotes, endnotes and numbered illustrative photos & art ... all of them meticulously and exhaustively enumerated in the bibliography.

The HAoWM is stupendous in it's breadth, depth, and ambition - it is nothing less than an exhaustive documentation and analytical discourse on the entire sweep of Human mythology, across ALL peoples, nations and times ... all the way back to the earliest known traces of humanity's very existance. It's very dense, toothsome reading, and I'll try to give you a feel for why.

Campbell is a wonderfully patient and helpful mentor, but as I've already mentioned above, he's also very polymathic, and although he goes out of his way to help his students and readers to follow along by providing ample numbered endnotes and footnotes and explanatory digressions, the material is still VERY dense and far roaming ... and it requires a fairly decent amount of effort (and polymathy) on the part of the reader in order to keep up.

Taking just half (1/2) of one (1) page at random, the writer, while elaborating on some subtle & profound point or observation that he's patiently trying to get across to the reader, roams freely & comfortably amongst a huge array of topics and references ... from hardcore archeology & oral traditions (includuding his own persona travels to distant tribes in polynesia or northern japan), to philosophy (i.e., references to plato, aristotle, tribal eldars like Black Elk, etc), to world history, to psychology (i.e., references to Freudian & Jungian archetypes), to art history (i.e., paintings and commentary by people like Cezanne, and people who research and comment on said artists, like James Joyce), to epistemology, to philology (ex: hindu and buddhist terms given in Indian & Japanese terminology, just for completeness) ... and all of THAT is squeezed into HALF of ONE PAGE. It's toothy stuff, and it requires frequent pauses and re-readings and skip-aheads & skip-backs to & from to the footnotes and bibliography ... and sometimes to a dictionary. However, don't let me scare you off from making the attempt, because the effort is very rewarding and highly recommended - but it takes effort and commitment, and Campbell's exhaustive references give you most of the waypoints you need to follow along.

Like most of the more worthwhile endeavors in life & artisty, you get out what you invest in ... modest efforts are usually rewarded with modest results, and greater results usually require correspondingly greater effort. Reading Campbell is very similar.

It's a rich, fulfilling, and deeply illuminating journey of discovery.

The world would be a much better place if more people could spend the time to study works like this one.

4.0 out of 5 stars Thank you, Joseph!, March 13, 2010

By 

Fred Gomes - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Way of the Animal Powers, Part 2: Mythologies of the Great Hunt (Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Volume I) (Hardcover)

The book came in a timely manner, was well protected for shipping, and arrived in the condition reported by the seller. Why this series isn't required reading for teachers in the educational system to provide a wide background of the historical records of the world and the place mythology has played in the world's development; I find that a mystery.

Additionally, for the beginning anthropologists and earth sciences debutantes it provides a nice overview of the period based on the fossil records and the development of the mythologies they lived by. . . but you really will need the whole series for full effect.