Kawaiisu Mythology: An Oral Tradition of South-Central California (Formerly Ballena Press anthropological papers)

This is the first publication of monograph length on the Kawaiisu Indians of the area east of Bakersfield in Kern County, CA.

This book represents the culmination of nearly four decades of research carried out by three different scholars (two of whom are now deceased) in an important but poorly described area of California. It also provides a history of ethnographic research on the obscure Kawaiisu and comparisons with the mythology of other groups in southern California and the Great Basin. Among the topics explored are the coyote cycle, magical transformations, visits to the underworld, and the natural hierarchy of the plant and animal worlds.