The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves Review

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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves Review(Go here: ferum-animi.livejournal.com/824901.html to my LiveJournal to see this review in its original HTML format.)
Being a werewolf enthusiast, when I spied The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves by Nathan Robert Brown in the metaphysical books section, I had to pick it up. I knew it would be bad, given that the cover boasted a coyote yapping at a full moon when they undoubtedly intended it to portray a wolf howling at the moon. I hoped it would be a funny read at least, maybe something along the lines of the amazing dry wit of The Werewolf's Guide to Life: A Manual for the Newly Bitten by Ritch Duncan. Alas, no. The attempts at levity fall flat, particularly after having finished The Werewolf's Guide to Life: A Manual for the Newly Bitten prior to reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves is a clumsy mixture of Cliff'sNotes type versions of oft-cited historical facts and lore, urban legends, descriptions of a few werewolf-themed movies, books, comics, anime, and games, "Native American werewolves and shapeshifters", relatives of the werewolf, therianthropes of the East, clinical lycanthropy, physical illnesses that may have spurred the idea of werewolves, and two chapters tossed in the mix that are attempts at humor (and boast prominent warnings that they are, in fact, humor, and not intended to be enacted on) -- Chapter 15. Once Bitten... Then What? and Chapter 16. How To Kill a Werewolf. These chapters are jarring, as suddenly it's goofy fantasy sandwiched between non-fiction chapters. I implore anyone who wants the subject matter of those two chapters presented in a skillfully written, witty, and thorough manner, that never breaks character and broadcasts no warnings (because--duh!--it's a parody), please order the amusing and vastly superior The Werewolf's Guide to Life: A Manual for the Newly Bitten by Ritch Duncan.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves offers a few references, but not as many as most well done Complete Idiot's Guides do. Is this a book of personal conjecture? Is this a work of fiction? Is this a serious expose of werewolves in history and pop culture? The book vacillates awkwardly between all three. The back of the book states it provides:
A brief history of werewolves around the world.
Beyond-beastly explanations of werewolf phenomena.
A selection of savagely entertaining werewolf facts and stories.
A fascinating look at how humans transform into werewolves.
I suppose it does what it says, but without proper references it's difficult to cross-check. Much of it can easily be discovered on-line. This is why I was dismayed when certain "facts" were offered that can be easily disproved, or at least called into question, if one does a good web search. How hard is a thorough Google search for both pro and con sites for each factoid/myth/urban legend/etc.? I just did so for a few days while writing this.
I could seriously spend weeks nitpicking each chapter and giving references to either discount the "facts" presented or to offer more widely accepted, different, or more thorough lore. Instead, I'll merely address a few things that made me scoff:
"Chapter 2: An American Werewolf in... America."
As always, whenever you read a book about monsters or the paranormal that espouses any supposed American Indian (or any ethnicity that one isn't and hasn't been raised in the culture) spiritual beliefs or superstitions, either don't trust its accuracy, gloss over it completely, or take it as pure camp, fantasy, or personal interpretation. I forgive fiction authors who take liberties with ethnic beliefs (within reason), because fiction isn't fact, and fantasy is just that: fantasy, not reality. Unfortunately, a lot of folks aren't critical thinkers or skeptical readers, and they immediately believe what they read, be it fiction or presented as non-fiction. Just because a myth or story is repeated in several books and websites doesn't mean they're a true representation of Tribal thought or practices
According to the book (on page 14), "the First Tribes of the Northwest Coast -- namely the Nootka, Quileute, and Kwakiutl -- are known to still actively teach certain forms of traditional lycanthropic rituals to their young men".
Um, no. No, no, and no. Lycanthropy is not an American Indian concept at all. Despite the mega-popularity of the "Twilight" book series and films, the Quileute Tribe aren't werewolves. Physical shape-shifting is fictional. "Twilight" is fantasy.

(On page 20), (this relates to the above statement) -- "The tribes of the Pacific Northwest are known to still teach spirit lycanthropy, though almost nothing is known about the details."
Simple -- the details aren't known because they DON'T teach lycanthropy, spirit or otherwise.
(Also on page 20), "Skinwalkers are primarily therianthropes, not lycanthropes."
No. Skin-walkers are not "therianthropes" or "lycanthropes". Those things are not American Indian concepts. Skin-walkers are not werewolves, nor were-animals, and are not the cultural equivalent of such.
This relates to a box on page 16, "Therianthropy is a term that is related to lycanthropy. It refers to the "were-state," in which a human assumes the form of an animal or a human-animal hybrid. Basically, lycanthropy is a specific form of therianthropy."

Heh. There is no term therianthropy in the dictionary. There are therianthropic (also therianthropism), and it's root, therian:
'the'ri'an'throp'ic' Pronunciation [theer-ee-an-throp-ik]
-adjective 1. being partly bestial and partly human in form.
2. of or pertaining to deities conceived or represented in such form.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Origin:
1885-90; < Gk th'rí(on) beast + anthrop- + -ic
Related forms:
the'ri'an'thro'pism Pronunciation [theer-ee-an-thruh-piz-uhm], noun
Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010
-----------------------------------------------------------
the'ri'an Pronunciation [theer-ee-uhn]
-adjective 1. (in some classification systems) belonging or pertaining to the group Theria, comprising the marsupial and placental mammals and their extinct ancestors.
-noun 2. a therian animal.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Origin:
< NL Theri(a) name of the group (< Gk th'ría, pl. of th'ríon wild beast) + -an
Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.'
One can easily extrapolate the definition of therianthropic, or therianthropism, into the term therianthropy or therianthrope and adopt the same characteristics to it. In that case, the definition given on page 16 for therianthropy is barely correct, and entirely misleading.
This suits this chapter well, though it's not specifically about it (it's from answers.yahoo.com):
"Answer: Kinda hard to answer your question because there is no such thing as a Native American "Shaman". And stay away anyone claiming to be American Indian shamans, talking about tarot cards and Wiccan/pagan things, or talking about crystals and New Age things. I've got nothing against shamanism, paganism, or the New Age, but a cow is not a horse: none of these things are traditionally Native American. Shamanism is a Russian mystic tradition, Wicca is a religion based in pre-Christian European traditions, Tarot readings are an Indo-European divination method, and the New Age is a syncretic belief system invented, as its name suggests, in the modern era. None of them have anything to do with authentic Indian traditions, and anyone who thinks they do is likely to be wrong about anything else he claims about Native American religions as well. Wiccans and New Agers don't have any more knowledge about actual American Indian beliefs than you do.
Second we DO NOT believe in werewolves or vampires.
Source(s):
enrolled tribal member, Eastern Cherokee"
Moving on...
"Chapter 5: Relatives of the Werewolf."
(On page 46), "Were-cats are sometimes referred to in popculture as bastets."
Um, no. Hell no. Referring to a feline shape-shifter as a "bastet" is purely a World of Darkness invention created by the White Wolf Publishing role-playing game company. See the Wiki Bastet page for detailed information on the Bastet breeds, character, and game mythology.
(on page 47), "Interestingly enough, were-cats are almost entirely absent from the folklore of Europe."
That's simply not true. See here: lynxspirit.com/cat.html and here: lynxspirit.com/lion.html for European were-cat references.
(on page 49), "A bruxsa, or cucubuth, is a creature that is both werewolf and vampire, though opinions differ on which came first."
Ironically, on an unrelated site, there was this reply to the same subject, from someone born and raised in Portugal:
"This page has something that I never heard of, the names given to werewolf-like creatures in Portugal.
Bruxsa is a word that I never had heard or seen in all my life. If we take the strangely located "s" then we get "Bruxa", and that is "witch" in Portuguese.
Cucubuth is obviously a word that is not Portuguese, and I would like to know where did they get that information. In fact, after a little search, I found some sites saying that Cucubuth was the name Avicenna gave to lycanthropy.
What I know about the Portuguese version of werewolves (lobisomens), is that they are shape-shifters like in many other European tales, and that they can change shape by rubbing themselves on the ground of...Read more›The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves Overview

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