Heart of Myth: Wisdom Stories From Endangered People
The Heart of Myth: Wisdom Stories From Endangered People by Dave Alber is a global anthology of myths from the living polytheistic traditions of six continents. The Heart of Mythunpacks the spirituality of the myths of each region in a local context, then traces connections and archetypes between regions so that world myth may be understood as both a communicative vocabulary and a grand cultural continuity.
Dave Alber’s The Heart of Myth:
- * reveals the universal language of mythology,
- * explains the spiritual function of myth as expressed in collective archetypes,
- * tells about the ecological and sustainable vision of indigenous people,
- * describes the lives of living polytheistic communities, most of them endangered people from six geographic regions (North America, Central and South America, Arctic, Asia, Africa, and Oceana),
- * tells stories of myth, legend, and folklore from around the globe (American Mythology, Central American Mythology, South American Mythology, Arctic Mythology, Asian Mythology, African Mythology, and Oceanic Mythology)
In the tradition of Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth and Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, Dave Alber’s The Heart of Myth: Wisdom Stories From Endangered People tells stories from the mythic world. David tells stories of Native American Mythology, Central American Mythology, South American Mythology, Arctic Mythology, Asian Mythology, African Mythology, and Oceanic Mythology. From Native America Dave Alber’s The Heart of Myth relates the myths of the Crow, Onodowaga, Zuni, Cree, and Chemehuevis. From the Arctic it covers the myths of the Chuckchi, Igloolik Inuit Eskimo myths, Inuit, and Buriyat. From Central and South America, David Alber tells myths from the Circum-Caribbean People of the Orinoco River Valley, Bororo, Yekuana, Aymara, Mapuche. From Africa Dave tells myths of San, Ogoni, Dinka, Masai, and Karanga. From Asia The Heart of Myth tells the myths of the Tharu, Kashmiri, Akha, Ainu, Karen, and Agta. From Australia and the Pacific Islands, The Heart of Myth speaks myths from Wurundjeri, Torres Strait Islanders, Hawaiian, Maori, and Samoan peoples. Samples from The Heart of Myth are at davealber.com.
Dave Alber is a scholar of myth who earned an M.A. in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute and is the Associate Editor of Mytholog magazine. David Alber’s positively reviewed books include, To the Dawn, Myth & Medium, and Alien Sex in Silicon Valley. Dave Alber is a contributor to Mythopoetry Scholar and the multimedia CD, Mythology: A CD-ROM Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, Greek & Roman. April 2007, Dave spoke on mythology, globalization, and endangered societies at the PCA/ACA Conference in Boston. Dave Alber’s fine art has exhibited at Stanford University, the Silicon Valley Art Museum, other Bay Area galleries, and recently featured in Phil Cousineau’s book Stoking the Creative Fires. Dave’s ESL products include: The Sound of English: English Pronunciation Practice, English Idioms: An Idiomatic Journey to the West, English For Chinese Speakers: Secret Message From Planet Meiguo™. Dave has written on Chinese art and myth in The Taotie Image in Chinese Art, Culture, and Cosmology and the article “Myths and Moon Cakes: The Cosmological Symbolism of the Zhou Revolution”. Dave’s post-traumatic stress recovery program is The Rhythm of Health™ and Dave’s two hypnotic storytelling CDs are Aesop’s Fable of the Tortoise and the Hare and The Story of the Chinese Farmer. He can be found at http://davealber.com/wp/ and http://easyamericanaccent.com/.
