Paul Radin (1883–1959)
Author of The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology
About the Author
Paul Radin (1884-1959) was a leading authority on primitive religion and thought
Series
Works by Paul Radin
The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian: Life, Ways, Acculturation and the Peyote Cult (1920) 114 copies
Monotheism among primitive peoples 4 copies
A grammar of the Wappo language 3 copies
The ÞTrickster 2 copies
Mexican kinship terms, (University of California publications in American archaeology and ethnology) (1931) 2 copies
Wappo texts 2 copies
The Racial Myth 1 copy
La civilisation indienne 1 copy
Associated Works
The two crosses of Todos Santos : survivals of Mayan religious ritual (1951) — Introduction — 27 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Radin, Paul
- Birthdate
- 1883-04-02
- Date of death
- 1959-02-21
- Gender
- male
- Education
- City College of New York (BA ∙ 1902)
Columbia University (PhD ∙ Anthropology ∙ 1911)
University of Berlin - Occupations
- anthropologist
professor - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Łódź, Russian Empire
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
Germany - Place of death
- New York, New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- New York, New York, USA
Members
Reviews
A century is a long passage of time in human terms. Many attitudes change in a century, yet nothing changes at all. In our age of political correctness, we would admonish Paul Radin for using the term ‘primitive man,’ even though it was common in his time. Yet, anyone reading about modern conflicts and how we treat others who differ from us – we ‘other’ them- often use derogatory language when referring to them. Nothing has changed since Paul Radin’s time except the language. show more
Therefore, I suggest we read Paul Radin’s book through modern eyes, always remembering that those we consider backward have their cultures, philosophy, poems, writing, religious attitudes, etc.
Paul Radin’s book portrays ‘primitive man’ sympathetically and illustrates his thesis systematically. After a few expository pages, he adopts one theme per chapter and illustrates his point with poems, hymns, and tales. ‘Primitive societies’ are astute and have deep connections with nature, a connection modern society has lost. He explored several themes in the book: the relationship of people in these societies with each other, with concepts like death, relationships, religion, nature, etc.
In doing so, he reveals the astonishing sophistication
Many will consider his writing dry and hard to read, but if you persist and read the book patiently, it will reward you and hopefully open your eyes to new perspectives. show less
Therefore, I suggest we read Paul Radin’s book through modern eyes, always remembering that those we consider backward have their cultures, philosophy, poems, writing, religious attitudes, etc.
Paul Radin’s book portrays ‘primitive man’ sympathetically and illustrates his thesis systematically. After a few expository pages, he adopts one theme per chapter and illustrates his point with poems, hymns, and tales. ‘Primitive societies’ are astute and have deep connections with nature, a connection modern society has lost. He explored several themes in the book: the relationship of people in these societies with each other, with concepts like death, relationships, religion, nature, etc.
In doing so, he reveals the astonishing sophistication
Many will consider his writing dry and hard to read, but if you persist and read the book patiently, it will reward you and hopefully open your eyes to new perspectives. show less
This was a pretty dry summary of a few of the most common Trickster myths in Native-American folklore. It was interesting but a little more specific than I had been hoping for (I forget how this got added to my list, but in subsequent research it seems like my interest in the Trickster figure might have been better fulfilled with the farther-reaching Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art
My main disappointment with the book is that Radin is concerned almost exclusively with the show more Winnebago tradition, although he appears quite capable of considering further implications of the Trickster archetype. For example, late in the book he says:
How much better of a book this would have been if this were the first paragraph instead of the very last!
That said, I can understand how people interested exclusively in the Native-American Trickster myth could be very satisfied with this book. It is a quick read, yet very thorough, and he did what he sets out to do very professionally. I would recommend jumping straight to his analysis and skipping the actual telling of the story, which starts the book off and didn't make much sense to me isolated from Radin's interpretative notes. Two essays finish off the book, the first by a Greek scholar that is everything I hate about academia: pedantic, self-satisfied and totally aloof from anything that matters. The second, luckily, is everything I wish the book had been: an exploration by Carl Jung of the Trickster archetype and what it means for us psychologically. I would totally buy a Trickster book by Jung. show less
My main disappointment with the book is that Radin is concerned almost exclusively with the show more Winnebago tradition, although he appears quite capable of considering further implications of the Trickster archetype. For example, late in the book he says:
The symbol which Trickster embodies is not a static one. It contains within itself the promise of differentiation, the promise of god and man. For this reason every generation occupies itself with interpreting Trickster anew. No generation understands him fully but no generation can do without him. Each had to include him in all its theologies, in all its cosmogonies, despite the fact that it realized that he did not fit properly into any of them, for he represents not only the undifferentiated and distant past, but likewise the undifferentiated present within every individual. This constitutes his universal and persistent attraction. 168
How much better of a book this would have been if this were the first paragraph instead of the very last!
That said, I can understand how people interested exclusively in the Native-American Trickster myth could be very satisfied with this book. It is a quick read, yet very thorough, and he did what he sets out to do very professionally. I would recommend jumping straight to his analysis and skipping the actual telling of the story, which starts the book off and didn't make much sense to me isolated from Radin's interpretative notes. Two essays finish off the book, the first by a Greek scholar that is everything I hate about academia: pedantic, self-satisfied and totally aloof from anything that matters. The second, luckily, is everything I wish the book had been: an exploration by Carl Jung of the Trickster archetype and what it means for us psychologically. I would totally buy a Trickster book by Jung. show less
I cannot think of another book where you have Jung and Kerenyi together commenting on a work, except as they appear together in different editions of the Eranos Yearbooks, and in those, they are writing around each year's subject of a conference. Radin's compilation of the Winnebagos' myths are somewhat tiring but information of a previous culture's entertainment and psychology. But what makes this book unique is you have Kerenyi and Jung at their best.
Road of Life and Death: the ritual drama of the American Indians (Bollingen Collection series, V. by Paul Radin
In this transcription of the Medicine Rite, the most sacred ritual of the Winnebago Indians, anthropologist Paul Radin captured a poetic source of profound importance to the understanding of mystical experience. Performed by medicine men upon the initiation of a member to their cult, this secret rite recapitulated the mythic origins and heroes of the Winnebago while integrating those present with the ancestral forces.
Source: 1991 Princeton University Press
Source: 1991 Princeton University Press
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- Works
- 48
- Also by
- 8
- Members
- 1,238
- Popularity
- #20,730
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 11
- ISBNs
- 69
- Languages
- 7