![]() ![]() Richard de Mille, son of Hollywood director Cecil B. ![]() Today, almost four decades after the book appeared and ten years since its author’s death, the legacy of The Teachings of Don Juan is as much about the consequences of its debated legitimacy as it is about Carlos Castaneda himself. Questions emerged over the existence of Don Juan, Castaneda’s representation of Yaqui culture, and the basic authenticity of The Teachings as academics, scientists, and authors identified dubious elements in Castaneda’s ethnography. With fame came scrutiny, however, and the celebrity anthropologist soon met with controversy that would span his entire career. in 1972 for his third book, Journey to Ixtlan. Spicer, who called the text a “remarkable achievement.” The doctoral committee at UCLA echoed Spicer’s esteem for Castaneda, awarding him a Ph.D. Combining anthropological observations with engrossing storytelling, The Teachings of Don Juan represented to many scholars an exciting new methodology in ethnographic literature, inspiring praise from such figures as Margaret Mead and Yaqui scholar Edward H. Castaneda enjoyed immediate success and went on to write a series of sequels chronicling his apprenticeship to Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian and sorcerer from Sonora, Mexico. When it was published in 1968, Carlos Castaneda’s groundbreaking ethnographic diary, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, received enthusiastic reviews from both the academic community and mainstream critics. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |