Carl Schuster; Edmund Carpenter; Lorraine Spiess.
New York: Rock Foundation, 1986-88.

Based on the Researches & Writings of Carl Schuster. Edited & Written by Edmund Carpenter. Assisted by Lorraine Spiess. A cornerstone of comparative anthropology, mythology, and art history. This monumental work draws on the vast ethnographic record assembled by American art historian Carl Schuster (1904-1969). Schuster died suddenly of cancer, leaving the material unpublished. Carpenter spent nearly two decades editing Schuster’s archive into this twelve-volume synthesis. The result is an epic survey of visual and mythic patterns: from Paleolithic Europe to the tribal societies of Oceania, the Americas, and Africa. Issued privately in a very small edition distributed directly to museums and researchers Materials for the Study of Social Symbolism is likely the most comprehensive documentation and analysis of traditional symbolism ever published.