Skip to content
Back To Index

Hidden Paradigms: Comparing Epic Themes, Characters, and Plot Structures

Hidden Paradigms: Comparing Epic Themes, Characters, and Plot Structures
By Brenda E.F. Beck
University of Toronto Press

Understanding an epic story’s key belief patterns can reveal community-level values, the nature of familial bonds, and how divine and human concerns jockey for power and influence. These foundational motifs remain understudied as they relate to South Asian folk legends, but are nonetheless crucial in shaping the values exemplified by such stories’ central heroes and heroines.

In Hidden Paradigms, anthropologist Brenda E.F. Beck describes The Legend of Ponnivala, an oral epic from rural South India. Recorded in 1965, this story was sung to a group of village enthusiasts by a respected pair of local bards. This grand legend took more than thirty-eight hours to complete over eighteen nights. Bringing this unique example of Tamil culture to the attention of an international audience, Beck compares this virtually unknown South Indian epic to five other culturally significant works – the Ojibwa Nanabush cycle, the Mahabharata, an Icelandic Saga, the Bible, and the Epic of Gilgamesh – establishing this foundational Tamil story as one that engages with the same universal human struggles and themes present throughout the world. Copiously illustrated, Hidden Paradigms provides a fresh example of the power of comparative thinking, offering a humanistic complement to scientific reasoning.

Brenda E.F. Beck is an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

More from this Volume
Bonjour/hello : de la présidente/from the president

J’ai eu l’honneur d’assumer la présidence de la CASCA dans une année mouvementée … and…

Mot de l’équipe / Editors’ Note

Bienvenue dans le numéro d'automne de Culture, le bulletin d'information semestriel de la CASCA! C’est…

Invisibilité et discrétion ? Conflits énergétiques et destructions socio-environnementales en Alt Empordà (Catalogne, Espagne)

Par Sabrina Bougie, étudiante au doctorat en anthropologie, Université Laval, Québec   La multiplication des…

Les Défis de l’Adaptation Culturelle(s) : Réflexions sur la Communication et la Sécurité en Temps de Crise

Emilie El Khoury, Ph.D, Post-Doctorante, Centre for International and Defense Policy (CIDP), Queen's University  …

Our members in the News/ Suivez nos membres dans les médias

At the University of Toronto, Associate Professor Girish Daswani appeared as a guest on a…

Des membres de la CASCA se distinguent/CASCA members stand out

University of Toronto Scarborough Anthropology Associate Professor Christopher Krupa has been awarded the 2023 Society…

In Memoriam: Megha Sharma Sehdev (1981-2023)

Dr. Megha Sharma Sehdev was a brilliant and creative scholar of law, violence, and care…

Beaver, Bison, Horse: The Traditional Knowledge and Ecology of the Northern Great Plains

As one of North America’s most unique ecologies, the Great Plains have fostered symbiotic relationships…

Conjuring the State: Public Health Encounters in Highland Ecuador, 1908-1945

The Ecuadorian Public Health Service was founded in 1908 in response to the arrival of…

Savoirs, utopies et production des communs

Savoirs, utopies et production des communs Martin Hébert, Francine Saillant et Sarah Bourdages Duclot (dir.).…

L’Europe et l’histoire des sans-histoire

L’Europe et l’histoire des sans-histoire Traduit de l’anglais (États-Unis) et présenté par André C. Drainville…

Autochtonie et question éducative dans les Outre-mer : Une enquête comparative en Guyane et en Polynésie française

Autochtonie et question éducative dans les Outre-mer. Une enquête comparative en Guyane et en Polynésie…

Éloge du raisonnable : Pour un réenchantement raisonné du monde

Éloge du raisonnable : Pour un réenchantement raisonné du monde Raymond Massé Presses de l’Université…

Petite

Petite Francine Saillant Academia, Louvain-la-Neuve, 212 pages, ISBN: 978-2-8061-3596-4 Petite, une enfant exploratrice, se frotte…

Recent Articles
Past Volumes

Contact

Membership

Our members are first to receive information about jobs, awards and conferences.

Back To Top