The Bungling Host motif appears in countless indigenous cultures in North America and beyond. In this groundbreaking work Daniel Clement has gathered nearly four hundred North American variants of the story to examine how myths acquire meaning for their indigenous users and explores how seemingly absurd narratives can prove to be a rich source of meaning when understood within the appropriate context. In analyzing the Bungling Host tales, Clement considers not only material culture but also social, economic, and cultural life; Native knowledge of the environment; and the world of plants and animals.

Clement’s analysis uncovers four operational modes in myth construction and clarifies the relationship between mythology and science. Ultimately he demonstrates how science may have developed out of an operational mode that already existed in the mythological mind.