NOTES
Santa Claus Burned as Heretic
Published originally as “Le Père Noël supplicié,” Les Temps modernes 77 (1952): 1572–90.
1.    [In the French tradition, Père Fouettard (Father Flog) accompanies Père Noël (Santa Claus or Father Christmas) on his rounds, dispensing coal and floggings to naughty children—trans.]
2.    Quoted in J. Brand, Observations on Popular Antiquities, new ed. (London, 1900), 243.
3.    On this point, see A. Varagnac, Civilisation traditionnelle et genre de vie (Paris, 1948), 92, 122 and passim.
4.    S. Reinach, “L’origine des prières pour les morts,” in Cultes, mythes, religions (Paris, 1905), 1:319.
1. “Topsy-Turvydom”
Originally published as “Se il mondo è alla rovescia,” La Repubblica, August 7, 1989.
2. Is There Only One Type of Development?
Originally published in two parts: “Mercanti in fiera,” La Repubblica, November 13, 1990; “Contadino chissà perchè,” La Repubblica, November 14, 1990.
3. Social Problems: Ritual Female Excision and Medically Assisted Reproduction
Originally published as “Il segreto delle donne,” La Repubblica, November 14, 1989.
4. Presentation of a Book by Its Author
Originally published as “Gli uomini della nebbia e del vento,” La Repubblica, September 10, 1991.
5. The Ethnologist’s Jewels
Originally published as “Ma perchè ci mettano i gioielli?” La Repubblica, May 21, 1991.
1.    D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, On Growth and Form (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1917; 2nd ed., 1952).
2.    Le trésor de Saint-Dénis, Louvre Museum, until June 17, 1991.
3.    Karl Marx, “The Precious Metals,” chap. 2, part 4 in A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, trans. S. W. Ryazanskaya (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1859; reprint, Marxists.org, 1993), http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/Marx_​Contribution_to_the_Critique_of_Political_Economy.pdf.
6. Portraits of Artists
Originally published as “La statua che divenne madre,” La Repubblica, February 23, 1992.
1.    J. R. Walker, Lakota Belief and Ritual (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991), 165–66.
2.    F. Boas, Tsimshian Mythology (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1916), 555.
3.    M. Séguin, ed., The Tsimshian: Images of the Past, Views of the Present (Vancouver: University of British Columbia), 164.
4.    F. Boas, “The Nass River Indians,” Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science for 1895, 580.
5.    Séguin, The Tsimshian, 287–88.
6.    J. R. Swanton, Haïda Texts: Memoirs of the American Museum of National History 14 (1908): 457–89.
7.    J. R. Swanton, Tlingit Myths and Texts (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1909), 181–82.
8.    Boas, Tsimshian Mythology, 152–54.
7. Montaigne and America
Originally published as “Come Montaigne scopri l’America,” La Repubblica, September 11, 1992.
8. Mythic Thought and Scientific Thought
Originally published as “L’Ultimo degli Irochesi,” La Repubblica, February 7, 1993.
1.    Giambattista Vico, The New Science of Giambattista Vico, trans. from the 3rd ed. (1744) by Thomas Goddard Bergin and Max Harold Fisch (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1948), book 2, sec. 2, chap. 2.5, para. 409, p. 118, https://archive.org/stream/newscienceofgiam030174mbp/​newscienceofgiam030174mbp_djvu.txt. For the following quotation, see the same paragraph.
9. We Are All Cannibals
Originally published as “Siamo tutti cannibali,” La Repubblica, October 10, 1993.
10. Auguste Comte and Italy
Originally published as “L’Italia è meglio disunita,” La Repubblica, June 21, 1994.
11. Variations on the Theme of a Painting by Poussin
Originally published as “Due miti e un incesto,” La Repubblica, December 29, 1994.
12. Female Sexuality and the Origin of Society
Originally published as “Quell’intenso profumo di donna,” La Repubblica, November 3, 1995.
13. A Lesson in Wisdom from Mad Cows
Originally published as “La mucca è pazza e un po’ cannibale,” La Repubblica, November 24, 1996.
14. The Return of the Maternal Uncle
Originally published as “Quei parenti così arcaici,” La Repubblica, December 24, 1997.
1.    “Full Text of Earl Spencer’s Funeral Oration,” BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/diana/spencerfull.html.
2.    Cai Hua, A Society Without Husbands or Fathers: The Na of China, trans. Asti Hustvedt (New York: Zone, 2000).
15. Proof by New Myth
Originally published as “I miti: uno sguardo dentro la loro origine,” La Repubblica, April 16, 1999.
16. Corsi e ricorsi: In Vico’s Wake
Originally published as “Gli uomini visti da un’ameba,” La Repubblica, March 9, 2000.
1.    D. Wilson, “Human Population Structure in the Modern World: A Malthusian Malignancy,” Anthropology Today 15, no. 6 (December 1999): 24.
2.    The New Science of Giambattista Vico, trans. from the 3rd ed. (1744) by Thomas Goddard Bergin and Max Harold Fisch (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1948), book 1, sec. 4, para. 349, p. 20, https://archive.org/stream/newscienceofgiam030174mbp/​newscienceofgiam030174mbp_djvu.txt.