Dragon and the Rainbow

Robert Blust (1940-2022) was a Professor of Linguistics at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. He was, and continues to be, the preeminent scholar of Austronesian comparative linguistics. An enormously prolific scholar, Blust had nearly 300 publications. In addition to being a world-famous linguist, he was also an avid writer of poetry.

• ForewordPrefacePreface by the AuthorAcknowledgementsList of Figures and TablesIntroductionPrologue: Two Steps from Nature to Culture1 From Rainbow to Rainbow Serpent2 From Rainbow Serpent to DragonPart 1 Dragons1 What, If Anything, Is a Dragon?2 Why Dragons? Theories from A to Z1 Naturalistic Theories of the Dragon: Cryptozoology2 Symbolic Theories of the Dragon3 Neo-Lamarckian Theories: The Dragon as Archetype4 Diffusionist Theories5 Other Theories3 Dragons and Waterfalls1 North America2 The Caribbean and South America3 Insular Southeast Asia4 The Pacific5 Africa4 Dragons and Thunder/Lightning5 The Ethnology of the Dragon1 Central and East Asia2 North America and Mexico3 The DataPart 2 Rainbows6 What, If Anything, Is a Rainbow?1 Rainbows: Familiar and Fantastic2 Portrayals of the Rainbow3 Distributional Summary7 The Ethnology of the Rainbow1 How the Dragon Was Born2 Mysteries of the Rainbow3 Sunshowers4 The Rainbow Taboo8 A Glimpse of the Glory1 Europe2 Ancient Near EastPart 3 Summing Up9 Connecting the Dots10 ConclusionsAppendix: Ethnic Groups CitedReferencesIndex