The Way of the Masks

By Claude Lévi-Strauss
Publisher: UBC Press
Paperback : 9780774807616, 249 pages, October 1999

Table of contents

Part I

1 Enigma of a Mask

2 The Salish Swaihwe

3 The Kwakiutl Xwexwe

4 Meeting the Dzonokwa

5 Dzonokwa Myths

6 The Clue to the Mystery

7 In Search of Wealth

8 The Origin of Copper

9 Coppers, Women, and Frogs

10 Earthquakes and Cylinder Eyes

11 The Nature of a Style

Part II

12 Beyond the Swaihwe

13 The Social Organization of the Kwakiutl

14 Hidden Traces of a Mask

References

Bibliography

Index

Description

Originally published under the title La Voie des masques, Sylvia Modelski has translated Claude Levi-Strauss’ explanation of the tribal masks of coastal British Columbia with reference to kinship ties, incest prohibition and myths.

Reviews

With this book, Claude Levi-Strauss brings his continuing demonstrations of how the collective mind works to some of the richest problems of Northwest Coast scholarship ... Working essentially with what happens at the borders of many Northwest Coast cultures, rather than almost exclusively from within one or two of them, Levi-Strauss has brought a unique and welcome coherence to our scholarship.

- BC Studies