178 A merican A nlhropologist
Alfred Vierkand!: A Sociological Critique. PAUL
HOCHSTIM. (An Exposition-University Book.)
New York: Exposition Press, 1966. 149 pp.,
bibliography. $6.00.
Reviewed by ROBERTF. SPENCER,
University of Minnesota
Vierkandt was a student of Wilhelm Wundt.
Although he died in 1953, his works cluster earlier,
and he may be assigned to the general group of
social thinkers on the Central European scene in the
early years of the present century. This book, the
apparent outcome of a doctoral dissertation in
sociology, attempts an evaluation and a critique.
Like much writing in the thesis vein, Hochstim’s
study relies heavily on quotations from numerous
authors either to refute Vierkandt’s notions or in
some measure to clarify them. But the result is
chaos. If Vierkandt’s German style is turgid, Hoch-
stim’s is no less so in English. Add to this the various
citations from a wide variety of sociologists and
anthropologists, thus creating a chapter-and-verse
exegesis, although it is never wholly clear why, and
the result is one of the most unreadable books seen
in a long time. Moreover, one comes away with a
sneaking hunch that Hochstim, so surfeited with
his subject perhaps, has come to loathe it. I n any
case, when the reader escapes the barrage of quota-
tions, there obviously cannot be much left of Vier-
kandt.
Really, is Vierkandt worth discussing? Such a
question is admittedly not fair to him, and, in all
justice, it can be said that he has a place in the in-
tellectual history of sociology-anthropology. I t is
not, to be sure, a place of eminence, but a t least he
puts forth an idea or two and makes some sugges-
tions that may have contemporary relevance. If
one considers the period of Vierkandt’s principal
works and the general philosophical commitment
he possessed, it scarcely seems useful to belabor
dead horses and to use moderns to refute the past.
Hence it may be just as well to try to by-pass briefly
Hochstim’s heavy-handed treatment and lo see if a
quick characterization of Vierkandt is possible.
Vierkandt combines Wundt’s psychological orien-
tations and the evolutionism of his day, a point re-
flected in his notion of the lack of deliberate ab-
stract thought in lower cultures; high cultures, of
course, permit such thought patterns. Vierkandt’s
problem as a sociologist (rather than as a psychol-
ogist) is thus to erect a scheme in which problems
such as individual versus group can be resolved. He
succeeds, persumably to his own satisfaction, al-
though of course he is clearly overshadowed by
Max Weber, certainly by Durkheim, and by several
other figures whose works immediately come to
mind. But probably the major Contribution of
Vierkandt, although one lacking a precise system,
might be said to lie in his phenomenological proposi-
tions. He stresses that the total implications of an
[70, 19681
overt act must be realized from all points of view.
This starts on the barest level ol linguistic commun-
ication and moves widely through the circumstances
of culture and social structure.
Such a concept may have some utility, and one
does, in any case, begin to hear more of the phenom-
enological as an alternative to the purely struc-
tural approach. But if this side of Vierkandt has
some significance, and a glance a t his works indi-
cates that this might be the case, Hochstim’s bias
against the phenomenological pretty effectively
undermines any contribution that could set Vier-
kandt off more positively.
I n summary, it is fairly clear that if one is in--
terested in Vierkandt, one had better read him and
not Hochstim.
The Study of Folklore. ALAN DUNDES,ed. Englewood
Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1965. xi, 481 pp.,
suggestions for further reading in folklore. $5.95.
Reviewed by RICHARD M. DORSON,
Indiana University
This superbly constructed book answers the
critics and scoffers who say that folklorists merely
collect. Dundes has assembled 34 theoretical and
analytical essays probing the materials of folklore
from a variety of perspectives. They demonstrate
the range and ingenuity of concepts employed by
folklorists of humanistic-literary, functional, psycho-
analytical, psychological, nature-allegorical, ritual,
structural, diffusionist, and historical-geographical
persuasions. They illustrate inquiries into origin,
process, form, and conceptual terms. They cover the
spectrum of folklore genres: oral narrative, epic
song, children’s games, lullabies, proverbs, riddles,
folk music, beliefs, folk architecture. They include
crucial and even classic statements by European
folklorists, such as Axel Olrik’s “Epic Laws of
Folk Narrative,” translated for the first time from
the German, Carl von Sydow’s “Folktale Studies
and Philology,” F. C. Bartlett’s “Some Experiments
on the Reproduction of Folk Stories,” and Lord Rag-
lan’s “The Hero of Tradition.” Most of the con-
tributors are American, however, and their writings
reflect Dundes’ own intellectual origins and the
maturing of American folklore scholarship.
The Study of Folklore in no whit resembles the
patchwork of hastily thrown together reprints by
which some academics advance their reputations.
Dundes has not only cleverly juxtaposed writings to
show the play of differing minds on the same prob-
lem, as the botanical and Freudian exegeses of
“Jack and the Beanstalk,” or the experiments of
Bartlett, Lowie, Lord, and Cushing in reproducing
and re-eliciting traditions. He is far more than an
arranger; his general introductions to the sections,
special introductions to each article, and editorial
notes inserted among the authors’ footnotes provide
both a guide to the resources of the subject and a
 Book Reviews
brilliant running commentary on folklore theories
and methods. This book is indeed a tour de force,
with Coach Dundes calling the signals from the
sidelines, explaining the inner strategy of the plays
to the spectators, and pointing out to the players
their own mistakes.
The notes are both explicitly factual and highly
theoretical. At the first mention of the type and
motif indexes, or Child ballads, or riddle forms, or
Paul Bunyan, Dundes explains the reference and
furnishes bibliography. On other occasions he sup-
plies specific type and motif numbers that are only
vaguely alluded to, especially by anthropologists,
in the articles. On the plane of ideas, he persuasively
corrects one master after another. Stith Thompson
uses “variant” and “version” indiscriminately, in-
stead of reserving variant for distinctive versions
(p. 420, note 4), and he fails to consider that frag-
mentary texts may be archetypes just as well as
fuller ones (pp. 449-450, note 9). Benedict did not
realize that details of the mouse gnawing off the
cock’s bristles and the cock biting off the mouse’s
tail, in the celebrated tale of “The Cock and the
Mouse,” are not Zuni additions but European ele-
ments (p. 274, note 4). Kluckhohn was unaware of
the wide distribution of the vagina dentala motif
(p. 164, note 18).
Dundes is both a demon bibliographer in the
labyrinthine maze of folklore publication and a
theoretician of the first order. In a learned note on
“three” as a magic number (p. 133, note 4), he cites
articles from a graduation yearbook of a German
secondary school in 1903, from Classical Philology,
and from L’.4nfiyz& Classique. Elsewhere (p. 93,
note 4) he refers to a German travel book of 1864
about Greece for thc sexual significance of the
number three. His control of the literature and the
thought enables Dundes to discuss authoritatively
and pithily one after another of the major questions
confronting folklorists: polygenesis versus psychic
unity, fiction versus fact in oral traditional history,
central versus marginal survival, printed versus oral
channels of transmission, inconsistency in folk
magic. His own preferences are those of the anthro-
pological folklorist focusing on function and process
(Bascom is the only contributor represented twice),
although this is an eclectic and balanced work.
Even his special predilections for structural and
psychoanalytical studies are muffled. He does issue
a calm statement pointing out the injustice of this
reviewer (not named, hut readily identified, p. 88)
in comparing solar mythological and psychoanalyt-
ical symbolism in folklore interpretations, saying
that psychoanalysts see folklore as a projection of
human, not celestial, bodies. And he praises the
“superb essay” of Ernest Jones in identifying salt
with semen (p. 96, note 8), and offers additional
support for Desmonde’s interpretation of “Jack and
the Beanstalk” as a masturbation fantasy (p. 108,
note 3). His own chief theoretical contribution to
179
overcome “the culture lag in folklore theory” is
synopsized in his essay, “Structural Typology in
North American Indian Folktales,” proposing the
now well-known structural model based on the unit
of motifeme.
In The Study of Folklore Dundes has given folklore
studies an immense stimulus and established him-
self as the leading folklorist of his generation.
A Bibliography of South Asian Folklore. EDWIN
CAPERSKIRKLAND.(Indiana University Folklore
Series, No. 21, Asian Folklore Studies Mono-
graphs, No. 4.) Bloomington: Indiana University
Research Center in Anthropology, Folklore, and
Linguistics; The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1966.
xxiv, 291 pp., index. $10.00 (paper).
Reviewed by EDWARD C . DIMOCK, JR.,
University o j Chicago
Edwin Capers Kirkland has added another
volume to the distinguished series of books, mono-
graphs, and papers produced from the Folklore In-
stitute a t Indiana University. This bibliography
is especially welcome, because for South Asian
materials there are many sources, some of them
most obscure and fugitive. Dr. Kirkland and his
associates in South Asia and in the United States
have done a commendable job of screening these
materials, in most of the regional languages of the
area as well as the European ones. I n an unsyste-
matic check, a few important items seem to be
missing. But there are 6,852 entries in the bibliog-
raphy, and in shuffling this many items a few are
bound to be overlooked.
It seems a trifle unfair to make picayune criti-
cisms of a major job of collection and collation, but
I would like to make a suggestion regarding the
indexing system, As it is, the items in the body of
the bibliography are entered alphabetically, each
with a reference number. The index gives categories:
ethnic (“Bhil”), geographical (“Bombay”), or
functional (“Bratas”)-and under each of these
categories a further breakdown. Under “Buddhist”
we have “Custom,” “Demonology,” “Festival,”
“Ritual,” and “Superstition,” with substantial
cross-references. These subcategories are those
suggested by the title or content of the entries them-
selves. This is more than adequate for certain pur-
poses. But one of the more interesting problems
confronting the folklorist in South Asia is the diffu-
sion of themes and motifs; the index is difficult to use
for such a study. If one were concerned, for example,
with “disease’, as a theme, he would have to check
each item in each regional category under relevant
subcategories such as “Tales,” “Religion,” “medi-
cine,” and “Demonology.” I n fairness to the
author, it must be pointed out that such a segrega-
tion of themes and motifs is a mammoth task, and
one that has already been attempted by Stith
Thompson’s Motif-Zndez of Folk Literalure. That