Literature Among the Primitives

Description

In this context, we are not to quarrel with the term "Literature". It simply means what would be written down, in the way of imaginative verbal constructions, if the primitive authors could write and if their audience were also readers. We are to distinguish "Primitive Literature" from folklore. Primitive Literature belongs to primitive peoples, who have no other kind of literature. When such a people acquires civilized techniques and associates, they develop a new sort of literature, in emulation of the most civilized, and their old oral literature degenerates into folklore, a process that can be seen happening now in parts of Africa. Mr. Greenway, who is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, and editor of the Journal of American Folklore, is concerned with the original primitive thing, the imagination that still shares with its society the one center of gravity. Introduction ix Chapter One / THE BARRIERS OF CULTURE AND LANGUAGE I Chapter Two / THE FORMS OF LITERATURE IN THE PRIMITIVE WORLD 35 Chapter Three / TRICKSTERS, TAR BABIES, AND OTHER HEROES 71 Chapter Four / THE ANATOMY OF QUALITY 106 Chapter Fine / THE MAKER AND THE GLEEMAN 149 Chapter Six / MACRO-CHANGE IN LITERATURE 181 Chapter Seven / THE USES OF LITERATURE 235 Chapter Eight / THE SCHOLARS 270 Bibliography 297 Index 331