Jamaica Anansi Stories

Jamaica Anansi Stories is a collection of folklore by Martha Warren Beckwith. Having studied under famed ethnographer Franz Boas at Columbia University, Beckwith dedicated her career to recording and contextualizing the traditions of people from around the world. Specializing in Jamaican, Hawaiian, Sioux, and Mandan-Hidatsa cultures, Beckwith published widely acclaimed works of folklore and ethnography through her interviews with native storytellers around the world. “One great hungry time. Anansi couldn't get anyt'ing to eat, so he take up his hand-basket an' a big pot an' went down to the sea-side to catch fish. When he reach there, he make up a large fire and put the pot on the fire, an' say, ‘Come, big fish!’” Opening her collection with the lighthearted and instructional “Animal Stories,” many of which record the conflicts between Anansi and the Tiger, Beckwith introduces her reader to one of central figures of Jamaican folklore. Associated with resistance, play, and