MYTHS OF THE DOG-MAN
Book Details + Condition: University of Chicago Press (Chicago and London). First Edition, 1991. Softcover. 298 pages with Bibliography and Index. “An impressive and important cross-cultural study that has vast implications for history, religion, anthropology, folklore, and other fields.... Remarkably wide-ranging and extremely well-documented, it covers the following: medieval Christian legends such as the 14th-century Ethiopian Gadla Hawaryat (Contendings of the Apostles) that had their roots in Parthian Gnosticism and Manichaeism; dog-stars (especially Sirius), dog-days, and canine psychopomps in the ancient and Hellenistic world; the cynocephalic hordes of the ancient geographers; the legend of Prester John; Visvamitra and the Svapacas ('Dog-Cookers'); the Dog Rong ('warlike barbarians') during the Xia, Shang, and Zhou periods; the nochoy ghajar (Mongolian for 'Dog Country') of the Khitans; the Panju myth of the Southern Man and Yao 'Barbarians' from chapter 11 of the History of the Latter Han and variants in a series of later texts; and the importance of dogs in ancient Chinese burial rites.... Extremely well-researched and highly significant.” [Victor H. Mair, The University of Chicago Press review] Chapters include:
- Hell is Other People
- The Cynocephalic Saint
- The Cynocephalic Hordes
- Visvamitra and the Dog-Cookers
- Dog-Cookers and Other Borderline Cases in Ancient and Medieval India
- Central Asia: The Vortex of Cynanthropy
- Chinese Dog-Man Traditions: P'an Hu and the Ch'uan Jung
- Barbarians in Ancient China
- Facing Up to Other People
Firm binding; light shelf wear to covers; interior is clean and free of markings. All books are carefully packed, and shipped in boxes.
