The Bungling Host

The Nature of Indigenous Oral Literature

Daniel Clément, Peter Frost

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781496200877
• eBook ISBN:
  9781496206688
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: North American Literary Criticism
• Index: Social Sciences

The Bungling Host motif appears in countless indigenous cultures in North America and beyond. In this groundbreaking work Daniel Clément has gatherednearlyfour hundred North American variants of the story to examine how myths acquire meaning for their indigenous users and explores how seemingly absurd narratives can prove to be a rich source of meaning when understood within the appropriate context. In analyzing the Bungling Host tales, Clément considers not only material culture but also social, economic, and cultural life; Native knowledge of the environment; and the world of plants and animals. Clément's analysis uncovers four operational modes in myth construction and clarifies the relationship between mythology and science. Ultimately he demonstrates how science may have developed out of an operational mode that already existed in the mythological mind.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Introduction
• 1. Caribou Takes In His Wife’s Dress (Subarctic)
• 2. Snake Makes a Meal in the Embers (Southwest)
• 3. The Fire Trap (Grand Basin)
• 4. While Bird Sings, Bear Cooks (Northwest Coast)
• 5. Seal Roasts His Hands (Northwest Coast)
• 6. Silver Fox Digs Up Yellow Jacket Larvae with His Penis (California)
• 7. Wildcat Beats a Blanket (California)
• 8. Deer Kills Her Children and Puts Their Bones Into the Water (Southwest)
• 9. Wolf Transforms Two Arrowheads into Mincemeat Puddings (Southwest)
• 10. Badger Pushes a Stick Down His Throat and Gets Yucca-Juice (Southwest)
• 11. Bison Skewers His Nose (Plains)
• 12. White-Tailed Deer Shoots at a Red Clay Bank (Plains)
• 13. Man Kills Bison with His Sharpened Leg (Plains, Plateau)
• 14. Black-Mountain-Bear Gets Persimmons by Leaning Against a Tree (Southeast)
• 15. Rabbit Gathers Canes (Southeast)
• 16. Squirrel Slits Open His Scrotum (Plains)
• 17. Duck Excretes Rice (Northeast)
• 18. Bird Gets Salmon Eggs by Striking His Ankle (Northwest Coast)
• 19. Muskrat Cooks Some Ice (Northeast)
• 20. Woodpecker Pulls Eels Out of Trees (Subarctic)
• Conclusion
• Appendix
• Notes
• Bibliography