Publisher's Synopsis
<div>"<i>The Origin of Table Manners</i> is the third volume of a tetralogy devoted to American Indian mythology. Unlike the first two volumes (<i>The Raw and the Cooked, From Honey to Ashes</i>), which are devoted to South American myths, the present one establishes relations with North America, which is the subject of the fourth (<i>The Naked Man</i>). . . . In the course of the analysis, the myths link up with ideas of more general interest. Thus, we find discussions of numeration, of morals, and of the origin of the novel. . . . <i>The Origin of Table Manners</i> is thus of special interest to students of American Indian mythology, although it contains ideas of interest to other fields and even to the general reader."—Daniel C. Raffalovich, <i>American Anthropologist </i><br><br>"An immense anthropological erudition is here wielded by one of the world's finest minds, and the myths themselves have never been taken more seriously. . . . [Lévi-Strauss] raises issues and then resolves them with the suspenseful cunning of a mystery novelist."—John Updike, <i>New Yorker </i><br></div>
