Folk Literature of the Yamana Indians

Johannes Wilbert

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780520032996
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520352216
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Social Sciences

"In my opinion this project of publications devoted to folk literature of South America is of paramount importance. South American mythology belongs to the spiritual inheritance of mankind on par with the great masterpieces of Greek and Roman antiquity and of the Near and Far East. At the present time this material is scattered in numerous publications most of which are not easy to locate. It would do a great service to scholars all over the world and to the general public to have them collected in a series of volumes." --Claude Levi-Strauss     "It is time we had a set of volumes containing good source material for those who wish to study South American indigenous narratives; I am also quite certain that many nonspecialists would be interested in original documents of this kind." --Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff


"In my opinion this project of publications devoted to folk literature of South America is of paramount importance. South American mythology belongs to the spiritual inheritance of mankind on par with the great masterpieces of Greek and Roman antiquity an

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents 1
• Introduction
• HEAVEN AND EARTH 1. The Older Sun-man
• 2. The Land of the Dead
• 3. The Younger Sun-man
• 4. The Rainbow
• 5. The Moon-woman
• 6. The Sensitive Ibis-woman
• 4. The Flood and the Sensitive Ibis-woman
• 8. The Flood10
• THE CULTURE HEROES 9. The First People8
• 5. The Invention of Fire
• 6. The Hunt for Birds
• 7. The Hunting of Sea Lions
• 13. The Invention of the Arrowhead
• 8. The Invention of the Harpoon Point
• 15. The Acquisition of Whale Oil
• 16. The Beginning of Sexual Desire
• 17. The First Menstruation
• 16. The First Childbirth
• 17. The Sister of the Yoalox Brothers Falls in Love18
• 20a. Death is Introduced
• 20b. Death Is Introduced
• 21. The Yoalox Brothers Go Away
• EXPLANATORY MYTHS 22. The Selfish Cormorant20
• 23. The Revenge of the Tufted Cormorants
• 24. The Revenge of the Eagle Owl
• 25. The Otter and His Five Brothers-in-law
• 23. The Wild Goose Couple
• 27. The Little Woodpecker
• 24. The Woodpecker Brother and Sister
• 29. The Woodpecker Couple
• 30. The Revenge of the Gerfalcon
• 25. How the Gerfalcon Lost His Wife
• 32. The Selfish Fox
• 33. The Stone Man31
• 34. The Sea Lion Rock39
• 35. The Lasawaia Rock
• 35. The Unfaithful Heron-woman46
• 36. The Water Sow Bug
• 38. The Stingy Grandmother
• 39. The Stingy Elephant Seal and His Two Grandsons
• 37. How Little Lasix Killed the Dolphin
• 41. The Ibis-woman’s Berries
• 42. The Grampus
• 43. The Discontented Father-in-law
• 44. The Old Guanaco and His Daughters
• ETHICAL MYTHS 45. The Young Brother-in-law
• 38. The Malevolent Brother-in-law
• 47. A Ghost Story
• 39. The Treacherous Bachelor
• 49. A Bachelor
• 50. The Skillful Slinger
• 51. The Cormorant Visitors
• 50. The Bird from the High Seas
• 53. The Braggart
• TALES ABOUT SHAMANS, SPIRITS, AND OGRES 54. The Revenge of the Sparrow Hawk
• 51. The Disrespectful Son-in-law
• 52. The Sensitive Sparrow
• 53. The Makers of Stone Points
• 58a. The Cannibals
• 58b. The Cannibals
• 59. The Water-spirits
• 60. The Disobedient Girl
• 61. The Ogre Who Fell in Love with a Woman
• 62. The Boy and the Ogre136
• 63. The Two Rival Shamans
• 64. The Nagging Wife
• 60. The Origin of the Men’s Kina138
• 61. How a Shaman Rescued His People
• Motif Distribution by Narrative
• <INDEX>Topical Motif Index
• Alphabetical Motif Index
• Motif Distribution by Motif Group
• Glossary
• Bibliography