Deadly Powers: Animal Predators and the Mythic Imagination

Trout, Paul A.

ISBN 10: 1616145013 / ISBN 13: 9781616145019

Published by Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 2011

About this Item

Signed by author on front free endpaper. Octovo (23.7 cm), pp. 326. Black cloth with red spine titling. Black illustrated jacket. Foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich. Very slight shelf wear, else fine.

Seller Inventory # 39839

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Deadly Powers: Animal Predators and the Mythic Imagination
• Publisher: Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1616145013
• ISBN 13: 9781616145019
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Near fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • anthropology

About this title

Synopsis

In this illuminating and evocative exploration of the origin and function of storytelling, the author goes beyond the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell, arguing that mythmaking evolved as a cultural survival strategy for coping with the constant fear of being killed and eaten by predators. Beginning nearly two million years ago in the Pleistocene era, the first stories, Trout argues, functioned as alarm calls, warning fellow group members about the carnivores lurking in the surroundings. At the earliest period, before the development of language, these rudimentary "stories" would have been acted out. When language appeared with the evolution of the ancestral human brain, stories were recited, memorized, and much later written down as the often bone-chilling myths that have survived to this day. This book takes the reader through the landscape of world mythology to show how our more recent ancestors created myths that portrayed animal predators in four basic ways: as monsters, as gods, as benefactors, and as role models. Each incarnation is a variation of the fear-management technique that enabled early humans not only to survive but to overcome their potentially incapacitating fear of predators. In the final chapter, Trout explores the ways in which our visceral fear of predators is played out in the movies, where both animal and human predators serve to probe and revitalize our capacity to detect and survive danger. Anyone with an interest in mythology, archaeology, folk tales, and the origins of contemporary storytelling will find this book an exciting and provocative exploration into the natural and psychological forces that shaped human culture and gave rise to storytelling and mythmaking.

About the Author

Paul A. Trout, professor emeritus at Montana State University, taught English for thirty-eight years. He has published widely on cultural and academic issues, and his articles have appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, Commonweal, the Christian Science Monitor, and other publications.