Littleton, C(ovington) Scott 1933-

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LITTLETON, C(ovington) Scott 1933-

PERSONAL: Born July 1, 1933, in Los Angeles, CA; son of Covington Scott (an investigator and writer) and Adeline (Hotchkiss) Littleton; married Mary Ann Wuest, August 26, 1961; children: Leslie Ann, Cynthia Ellen. Ethnicity: "Anglo-American." Education: Attended El Camino College, 1952-54; University of California, Los Angeles, A.B. (with highest honors), 1957, M.A., 1962, Ph.D. (anthropology), 1965. Politics: Democrat. Hobbies and other interests: Running, cycling, swimming, photography, science fiction, the Internet.

ADDRESSES: Home—1600 La Loma Rd., Pasadena, CA 91105-2138. Agent—Denice Fractious, Literary Properties Agency of Pasadena, 837 Magnolia Ave., Suite 8, Pasadena, CA 90016. E-mail—yokatta@oxy. edu.

CAREER: University of California, Los Angeles, research assistant in folklore center, 1961-62; Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, assistant professor, 1962-68, associate professor, 1968-80, professor of anthropology, 1994-98, chair of department of sociology and anthropology, 1967-72, 1974-93, chair of department of anthropology, 1994-98; instructor, University of California Extension, 1960-62, 1964-87; Fulbright professor, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, 1980-81, senior Fulbright researcher, 1994. Consultant, Pasadena Research Institute, The World Book Encyclopedia; mythology editor, with N. C. Allen, Journal of Indo-European Studies, 2000—. Military service: U.S. Army, 1950-52; served in Korea.

MEMBER: American Anthropological Association (fellow), American Ethnological Association, Society for Cultural Anthropology, American Philosophical Society, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Beta Kappa Alumni, Southern California (president, Alpha Association, 2002—), Federation of Phi Beta Kappa Associations (vice chair, 2003—).

AWARDS, HONORS: American Council of Learned Societies grants, 1972, 1978; Wenner-Gren Foundation grant, 1983, Graham H. Sterling Memorial Award, Occidental College, 1991; inducted into Occidental College Faculty Hall of Fame, 1997; Honorary Seal Award for Emeritus Faculty, Occidental College Alumni Association, 2002.

WRITINGS:

The New Comparative Mythology: An Anthropological Assessment of the Theories of Georges Dumézil, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1966, 3rd edition, 1982.

(Editor, with Gerald James Larson and Jaan Puhvel) Myth in Indo-European Antiquity, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1974.

(Author of introduction) Georges Dumézil, Gods of the Ancient Norsemen, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1974.

(With Yoji Tanabe) How and Why We Celebrate, Shohakusha (Tokyo, Japan), 1978.

The New Comparative Mythology: An Anthropological Assessment of the Theories of Georges Dumézil, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1982.

(With Linda A. Malcor) From Scythia to Camelot: A Radical Reassessment of the Legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the Holy Grail, Garland (New York, NY), 1994, 2nd edition, 2000.

(General editor) Eastern Wisdom: An Illustrated Guide to the Religions and Philosophies of the East, Holt (New York, NY), 1995, published as The Sacred East: An Illustrated Guide to Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism and Shinto, Ulysses Press (Berkeley, CA), 1999.

(Editor and author of introduction, with Horace L. Hotchkiss) The Diaries of Blakely Wilson: An American Traveler in Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land, 1874-1876, Mellen (Lewiston, NY), 1998.

Shinto: Origins, Rituals, Festivals, Spirits, Sacred Places, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Phase Two (novel), Invisible College Press (Arlington, VA), 2002.

Contributor to books, including Indo-European and Indo-Europeans, edited by George Cardona, H. M. Hoenigswald, and Alfred Senn, University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1970; and Myth and Law among the Indo-Europeans, edited by Jaan Puhvel, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1970. Contributor to folklore and anthropology journals.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Tokyo Taisan: The Anatomy of a Neighborhood Shinto Shrine Festival; Community, sequel to Phase Two; and 2500 Strand, a Memoir: Growing up in Hermosa Beach, California, during the Second World War.

SIDELIGHTS: C. Scott Littleton is an anthropologist who often writes on the subjects of mythology and Eastern cultures. He is known for his work in the area of comparative mythology and studies of Japanese culture and religion. His Shinto: Origins Rituals, Festivals, Spirits, Sacred Places explains the origins and practice of Shinto for Western readers. John Green of Booklist found that Littleton portrays Shinto as a "religion of the world" in its attention to earthly life rather than focusing on the afterlife. Green concluded that Shinto is not an all-encompassing volume, but serves as a good introduction to its subject. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly reached the same conclusion, calling the book "an outstanding introduction" that will give readers "a deeper appreciation of both Shinto and of Japanese culture."

Littleton describes himself on his Web site as follows: "My professional specialties range across a wide spectrum and include comparative Indo-European mythology and folklore, cognitive and symbolic anthropology, urban anthropology, the origin and distribution of the Arthurian and Holy Grail legends, and Japanese culture, both ancient and contemporary, with an emphasis on Shinto…. I would define myself as a'postmodern materialist,' which is a fancy way of saying that I'm extremely eclectic in my approach to the discipline. Indeed, in my humble opinion, one of the most important problems facing contemporary anthropology is an unwillingness on the part of all too many of its practitioners to take seriously theories and methods that lie outside their own narrow specialties."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, July, 1996, review of Eastern Wisdom: An Illustrated Guide to the Religions and Philosophies of the East, p. 1842; May 15, 2002, John Green, review of Shinto: Origins, Rituals, Festivals, Spirits, Sacred Places, p. 1557.

Choice, January, 1995, p. 782.

Library Journal, June 15, 1996, p. 70.

Publishers Weekly, April 8, 1996, p. 62; March 25, 2002, review of Shinto, p. S21.

References and Research Book News, November, 1994,p. 7; July, 1996, p. 4.

Religion, July, 1998, Victor H. Mair, review of From Scythia to Camelot: A Radical Reassessment of the Legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the Holy Grail, p. 294.

School Library Journal, October, 1996, p. 166.

Speculum, October, 1995, p. 930.

UFO: The Science and Phenomena Magazine, June-July, 2003, Don Ecker, review of Phase Two, pp. 74-75.