The Origin of Table Manners is the third volume of a tetralogy devoted
to American Indian mythology. Unlike the first two volumes (The Raw and
the Cooked, From Honey to Ashes), which are devoted to South American
myths, the present one establishes relations with North America, which
is the subject of the fourth (The Naked Man). . . . In the course of
the analysis, the myths link up with ideas of more general interest.
Thus, we find discussions of numeration, of morals, and of the origin of
the novel. . . . The Origin of Table Manners is thus of special
interest to students of American Indian mythology, although it contains
ideas of interest to other fields and even to the general
reader.--Daniel C. Raffalovich, American Anthropologist
An immense anthropological erudition is here wielded by one of the
world's finest minds, and the myths themselves have never been taken
more seriously. . . . [Lévi-Strauss] raises issues and then resolves
them with the suspenseful cunning of a mystery novelist.--John Updike,
New Yorker