Custom and Myth / New Edition

A collection of essays applies an anthropological method to the study of folklore, arguing that ritual, language, and social custom shape mythic narratives and that diffusion and limited independent invention both account for cross-cultural similarities. It surveys totemism and rites of vegetation, considers the method of folklore, and analyzes specific cases — the bull-roarer, the myth of Cronus, Cupid and Psyche, a far-travelled tale, Apollo and the mouse, star myths, mandrake lore, the Kalevala, divining rods, Hottentot beliefs, fetishism, early family structures, and savage art — drawing parallels among classical, Indian, and indigenous traditions.