Abrahams Roger D. Boeken

The deep forest and broad savannah, the campsites, kraals, and villages—from this immense area south of the Sahara Desert the distinguished American folklorist Roger D. Abrahams has selected ninety-five tales that suggest both the diversity and the interconnectedness of the people who live there. The storytellers weave imaginative myths of creation and tales of epic deeds, chilling ghost stories, and ribald tales of mischief and magic in the animal and human realms. Abrahams renders these stories in a narrative voice that reverberates with the rhythms of tribal song and dance and the emotional language of universal concerns. With black-and-white drawings throughout Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

The Ritual Process quickly became a classic after its publication in 1969. Based on his field research among African tribes, Turner demonstrates that the analysis of ritual behavior and symbols can serve as a key to understanding social structures and processes. He builds upon Van Gennep's concept of the "liminal phase," expanding it to a more general level and using it to illuminate a wide range of social phenomena. Turner aims to liberate his own thoughts, and those of others, from a rigid dependence on "structure" as the sole sociological measure.

This collection of tales opens up a magical world far from our customary haunts. Ghost stories, romances, fables, and heroic sagas: the forms are familiar, but the characters we meet surprise us at every turn. For those who know and love the tales of the Grimms and Andersen, the universal themes of fairy tale literature emerge in these classic stories, but with a sophistication that is uniquely Chinese and altogether entrancing. With black-and-white drawings throughout Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library