The Structural Study of Myth Author(s): Claude Levi-Strauss Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 68, No.

270, Myth: A Symposium (Oct. - Dec., 1955), pp. 428-444 Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of American Folklore Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/536768 Accessed: 11/02/2009 18:04
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=illinois. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

University of Illinois Press and American Folklore Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of American Folklore.

http://www.jstor.org

THE STRUCTURAL STUDY OF MYTH

BY CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS "It would seem that mythological worlds have been built up only to be shatteredagain, and that new worlds were built from the fragments." Franz Boas, in Introduction to James Teit, Traditions of the Thompson River Indians of British Columbia, Memoirs of the American Folklore Society, VI (I898), i8.

I.o. Despite some recent attempts to renew them, it would seem that during the past twenty years anthropology has more and more turned away from studies in the field of religion. At the same time, and precisely because professional anthropologists' interest has withdrawn from primitive religion, all kinds of amateurs who claim to belong to other disciplines have seized this opportunity to move in, thereby turning into their private playground what we had left as a wasteland. Thus, the prospects for the scientific study of religion have been undermined in two ways. I.I. The explanation for that situation lies to some extent in the fact that the anthropological study of religion was started by men like Tylor, Frazer, and Durkheim who were psychologically oriented, although not in a position to keep up with the progress of psychological research and theory. Therefore, their interpretations soon became vitiated by the outmoded psychological approach which they used as their backing. Although they were undoubtedly right in giving their attention to intellectual processes, the way they handled them remained so coarse as to discredit them altogether. This is much to be regretted since, as Hocart so profoundly noticed in his introduction to a posthumous book recently published,' psychological interpretations were withdrawn from the intellectual field only to be introduced again in the field of affectivity, thus adding to "the inherent defects of the psychological school . . . the mistake of deriving clear-cutideas . . . from vague emotions." Instead of trying to enlarge the framework of our logic to include processes which, whatever their apparent differences, belong to the same kind of intellectual operations, a naive attempt was made to reduce them to inarticulate emotional drives which resulted only in withering our studies. I.2. Of all the chapters of religious anthropology probably none has tarried to the same extent as studies in the field of mythology. From a theoretical point of view the situation remains very much the same as it was fifty years ago, namely, a picture of chaos. Myths are still widely interpreted in conflicting ways: collective dreams, the outcome of a kind of esthetic play, the foundation of ritual.... Mythological figures are considered as personified abstractions,divinized heroes or decayed gods. Whatever the hypothesis, the choice amounts to reducing mythology either to an idle play or to a coarse kind of speculation. I.3. In order to understand what a myth really is, are we compelled to choose between platitude and sophism? Some claim that human societies merely express,
1A. M. Hocart, Social Origins (London, 1954), p. 7.

428

The Structural Study of Myth

429

throughtheir mythology,fundamental feelings commonto the whole of mankind, such as love, hate,revenge;or that they try to providesome kind of explanations for otherwise:astronomical, meteorological, phenomenawhich they cannot understand and the like. But why shouldthesesocietiesdo it in suchelaborate deviousways, and since all of them are also acquainted On with positiveexplanations? the otherhand, and have shiftedthe problemsto be explained psychoanalysts many anthropologists away from the naturalor cosmologicaltowardsthe sociologicaland psychological fields. But then the interpretation becomestoo easy: if a given mythologyconfers to it let prominence a certaincharacter, us say an evil grandmother, will be claimed that in such a societygrandmothers actuallyevil and that mythologyreflects the are social structure and the socialrelations;but shouldthe actualdata be conflicting, it would be readilyclaimedthat the purposeof mythologyis to providean outlet for repressed feelings.Whateverthe situationmay be, a cleverdialecticwill alwaysfind a way to pretend a meaninghasbeenunravelled. that 2.0. Mythologyconfrontsthe studentwith a situationwhich at first sight could be looked upon as contradictory. the one hand, it would seem that in the course On of a myth anythingis likely to happen.There is no logic, no continuity. Any characteristiccan be attributed any subject;everyconceivable to relationcan be met. With myth, everythingbecomespossible.But on the other hand, this apparentarbitrariness is beliedby the astounding betweenmythscollected widely different in similarity Thereforethe problem:if the contentof a myth is contingent, how are we regions. to explainthat throughout worldmythsdo resemble another much? the one so going this awareness a basicantinomypertainingto the natureof of 2.I. It is precisely which we face is myth that may lead us towardsits solution.For the contradiction very similarto that which in earliertimes broughtconsiderable worry to the first philosophersconcernedwith linguistic problems;linguistics could only begin to evolve as a scienceafterthis contradiction been overcome. had Ancientphilosophers were reasoningaboutlanguagethe way we are aboutmythology.On the one hand, of they did noticethat in a given languagecertainsequences soundswere associated with definite meanings,and they earnestlyaimed at discoveringa reason for the linkage between those sounds and that meaning. Their attempt, however, was thwartedfrom the very beginningby the fact that the same soundswere equally presentin otherlanguagesthough the meaningthey conveyedwas entirelydifferent. The contradiction surmounted was that it is the combination only by the discovery of sounds,not the soundsin themselves, which providesthe significant data.
2.2. Now, it is easy to see that some of the more recent interpretationsof mythological thought originated from the same kind of misconception under which those early linguists were laboring. Let us consider, for instance, Jung's idea that a given mythological pattern-the so-called archetype-possesses a certain signification. This is comparable to the long supported error that a sound may possess a certain affinity with a meaning: for instance, the "liquid" semi-vowels with water, the open vowels with things that are big, large, loud, or heavy, etc., a kind of theory which still has its supporters.2Whatever emendations the original formulation may now call for, everybody will agree that the Saussurean principle of the arbitrarycharacter of the linguistic signs was a prerequisite for the acceding of linguistics to the scientific level. 2

I, No.

See, for instance,Sir R. A. Paget, "The Origin of Language. .. ," Journalof World History, 2 (UNESCO, 1953).

Journal of American Folklore 2.3. To invite the mythologist to compare his precarious situation with that of the linguist in the prescientific stage is not enough. As a matter of fact we may thus be led only from one difficulty to another. There is a very good reason why myth cannot simply be treated as language if its specific problems are to be solved; myth is language: to be known, myth has to be told; it is a part of human speech. In order to preserve its specificity we should thus put ourselves in a position to show that it is both the same thing as language, and also something different from it. Here, too, the past experience of linguists may help us. For language itself can be analyzed into things which are at the same time similar and different. This is precisely what is expressed in Saussure'sdistinction between langue and parole, one being the structural side of language, the other the statisticalaspect of it, langue belonging to a revertible time, whereas parole is non-revertible.If those two levels already exist in language, then a third one can conceivablybe isolated. 2.4. We have just distinguished langue and parole by the different time referents which they use. Keeping this in mind, we may notice that myth uses a third referent which combines the properties of the first two. On the one hand, a myth always refers to events alleged to have taken place in time: before the world was created, or during its first stages-anyway, long ago. But what gives the myth an operative value is that the specific pattern described is everlasting; it explains the present and the past as well as the future. This can be made clear through a comparison between myth and what appears to have largely replaced it in modern societies, namely, politics. When the historian refers to the French Revolution it is always as a sequence of past happenings, a non-revertible series of events the remote consequences of which may still be felt at present. But to the French politician, as well as to his followers, the French Revolution is both a sequence belonging to the pastas to the historian-and an everlasting pattern which can be detected in the present French social structure and which provides a clue for its interpretation,a lead from which to infer the future developments. See, for instance, Michelet who was a politically-minded historian. He describes the French Revolution thus: "This day . . . 430
everything was possible. . . . Future became present . . . that is, no more time, a

glimpse of eternity." It is that double structure, altogether historical and anhistorical, which explains that myth, while pertaining to the realm of the parole and calling for an explanation as such, as well as to that of the langue in which it is expressed, can also be an absolute object on a third level which, though it remains linguistic by nature, is neverthelessdistinct from the other two. 2.5. A remark can be introduced at this point which will help to show the singularity of myth among other linguistic phenomena. Myth is the part of language where the formula traduttore,tradittorereachesits lowest truth-value.From that point of view it should be put in the whole gamut of linguistic expressionsat the end opposite to that of poetry, in spite of all the claims which have been made to prove the contrary. Poetry is a kind of speech which cannot be translated except at the cost of serious distortions; whereas the mythical value of the myth remains preserved, even through the worst translation.Whatever our ignorance of the language and the culture of the people where it originated, a myth is still felt as a myth by any reader throughout the world. Its substance does not lie in its style, its original music, or its syntax, but in the story which it tells. It is language, functioning on an especially high level

431 where meaning succeeds practically at "taking off" from the linguistic ground on which it keeps on rolling. 2.6. To sum up the discussion at this point, we have so far made the following claims: i. If there is a meaning to be found in mythology, this cannot reside in the isolated elements which enter into the composition of a myth, but only in the way those elements are combined. 2. Although myth belongs to the same category as language, being, as a matter of fact, only part of it, language in myth unveils specific properties. 3. Those properties are only to be found above the ordinary linguistic level; that is, they exhibit more complex features beside those which are to be found in any kind of linguistic expression. 3.o. If the above three points are granted, at least as a working hypothesis, two consequences will follow: i. Myth, like the rest of language, is made up of constituent units. 2. These constituent units presuppose the constituent units present in language when analyzed on other levels, namely, phonemes, morphemes, and semantemes, but they, nevertheless, differ from the latter in the same way as they themselves differ from morphemes, and these from phonemes; they belong to a higher order, a more complex one. For this reason, we will call them gross constituent units. 3.1. How shall we proceed in order to identify and isolate these gross constituent units? We know that they cannot be found among phonemes, morphemes, or semantemes, but only on a higher level; otherwise myth would become confused with any other kind of speech. Therefore, we should look for them on the sentence level. The only method we can suggest at this stage is to proceed tentatively, by trial and error, using as a check the principles which serve as a basis for any kind of structuralanalysis: economy of explanation; unity of solution; and ability to reconstruct the whole from a fragment, as well as further stages from previous ones. 3.2. The technique which has been applied so far by this writer consists in analyzing each myth individually, breaking down its story into the shortest possible sentences, and writing each such sentence on an index card bearing a number corresponding to the unfolding of the story. 3.3. Practically each card will thus show that a certain function is, at a given time, predicated to a given subject. Or, to put it otherwise, each gross constituent unit will consist in a relation. 3.4. However, the above definition remains highly unsatisfactoryfor two different reasons. In the first place, it is well known to structural linguists that constituent units on all levels are made up of relations and the true difference between our gross units and the others stays unexplained; moreover, we still find ourselves in the realm of a non-revertible time since the numbers of the cards correspond to the unfolding of the informant's speech. Thus, the specific character of mythological time, which as we have seen is both revertible and non-revertible, synchronic and diachronic, remains unaccounted for. Therefrom comes a new hypothesis which constitutes the very core of our argument: the true constituent units of a myth are not the isolated relations but bundles of such relations and it is only as bundles that these relations can be put to use and combined so as to produce a meaning. Relations pertaining to the same bundle may appear diachronically at remote intervals, but when we have succeeded in grouping them together, we have reorganized our myth according to a time referent of a new nature corresponding to the prerequisite of the initial hypothe-

The StructuralStudy of Myth

432

Journalof AmericanFolklore

and diachronic time referentwhich is simultaneously sis, namely,a two-dimensional of and which accordingly the characteristics the langue on one synchronic integrates hand,and thoseof the paroleon the other.To put it in even morelinguisticterms,it is as thougha phonemewerealwaysmadeup of all its variants. 4.0. Two comparisons help to explainwhatwe havein mind. may of 4.1. Let us first supposethat archaeologists the future coming from another from the earth,excavate planetwould one day, when all humanlife had disappeared of our writing,they might one of our libraries. Even if they were at first ignorant succeedin deciphering which would require,at someearlystage, it-an undertaking the discovery that the alphabet, we are in the habitof printingit, shouldbe read as from left to right and from top to bottom.However,they would soon find out that a whole categoryof booksdid not fit the usualpattern:thesewould be the orchestra scores on the shelves of the music division. But after trying, without success,to decipherstaffs one after the other,from the upperdown to the lower, they would eitherin full or at of notice that the same patterns notesrecurred intervals, probably of in part, or that some patternswere stronglyreminiscent earlierones. Hence the in hypothesis:what if patternsshowing affinity,insteadof being considered succession,were to be treatedas one complexpatternand readglobally?By gettingat what we call harmony, score,in orderto become they would then find out that an orchestra one axis-that is, page afterpage,and has to be readdiachronically meaningful, along from left to right-and also synchronically along the other axis, all the notes which one grossconstituent are writtenvertically unit,i.e. one bundleof relations. makingup Let is The othercomparison somewhatdifferent. us take an observer ignorant 4.2. He of our playing cards,sitting for a long time with a fortune-teller. would know somethingof the visitors:sex, age, look, socialsituation,etc. in the sameway as we know somethingof the differentcultureswhose myths we try to study. He would so also listen to the seancesand keep them recorded as to be ableto go overthem and we do when we listen to myth telling and recordit. Mathemake comparisons-as to maticians whom I have put the problemagreethat if the man is brightand if the the he to materialavailable him is sufficient, may be ableto reconstruct natureof the to cardsaccording case,made deck of cardsbeing used,that is: fifty-twoor thirty-two individual seriesconsistingof the sameunits (the cards)with up of four homologous the only one varyingfeature, suit. We exampleof the methodwe propose. 4.3. The time has cometo give a concrete of will use the Oedipusmyth which has the advantage being well-knownto everyis needed.By doing so, I explanation therefore body and for which no preliminary am well aware that the Oedipusmyth has only reachedus under late forms and concernedmore with estheticand moral preoccuthrough literarytransfigurations thesemay have been.But as will than with religiousor ritualones, whatever pations situationwill strengthenour demonbe shown later, this apparently unsatisfactory thanweakenit. rather stration scoreperversely The myth will be treatedas would be an orchestra presented 4-4. As the as a unilinearseriesand whereour task is to re-establish correct disposition. if,
for instance, we were confronted with a sequence of the type: I,2,4,7,8,2,3,4,6,8,1,4,5,7, ..., the assignment being to put all the I's together, all the 2's, the 3's, 8,I,2,5,7,3,4,5,6,8

etc.; the resultis a chart:

The Structural Studyof Myth

12 234 1 12 45 5 345 6 8 4 6 78 7 78 8

433

4.5- We will attempt to perform the same kind of operation on the Oedipus myth, trying out several dispositions until we find one which is in harmony with the principles enumerated under 3.1. Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that the best arrangement is the following (although it might certainly be improved by the help of a specialistin Greek mythology): Kadmos seeks his sister Europaravishedby Zeus Kadmos kills the dragon The Spartoikill each other Oedipus kills his fatherLaios Oedipus kills the Sphinx Oedipus marries his mother Jocasta Eteocleskills his brother Polynices Oedipus = swollen foot (?

Labdacos (Laios' father) = lame (?) Laios (Oedipus' father) = left-sided(?)

Antigone buriesher brotherPolynicesdespite prohibition 4.6. Thus, we find ourselves confronted with four vertical columns each of which include several relations belonging to the same bundle. Were we to tell the myth, we would disregard the columns and read the rows from left to right and from top to bottom. But if we want to understand the myth, then we will have to disregard one half of the diachronic dimension (top to bottom) and read from left to right, column after column, each one being considered as a unit. 4.7. All the relations belonging to the same column exhibit one common feature which it is our task to unravel. For instance, all the events grouped in the first column on the left have something to do with blood relations which are over-emphasized,i.e. are subject to a more intimate treatment than they should be. Let us say, then, that the first column has as its common feature the overrating of blood relations. It is obvious that the second column expresses the same thing, but inverted: underrating of blood relations. The third column refers to monsters being slain. As to the fourth, a word of clarification is needed. The remarkable connotation of the surnames in Oedipus'

434 Journalof AmericanFolklore father-line has often been noticed. However, linguists usually disregard it, since to them the only way to define the meaning of a term.is to investigate all the contexts in which it appears, and personal names, precisely because they are used as such, are not accompanied by any context. With the method we propose to follow the objection disappears since the myth itself provides its own context. The meaningful fact is no longer to be looked for in the eventual sense of each name, but in the fact that all the names have a common feature: i.e. that they may eventually mean something and that all these hypothetical meanings (which may well remain hypothetical) exhibit a common feature, namely they refer to difficulties to walk and to behave straight. 4.8. What is then the relationship between the two columns on the right? Column three refers to monsters. The dragon is a chthonian being which has to be killed in order that mankind be born from the earth; the Sphinx is a monster unwilling to permit men to live. The last unit reproduces the first one which has to do with the autochthonous origin of mankind. Since the monsters are overcome by men, we may thus say that the common feature of the third column is the denial of the autochthon-

ous originof man.

4.9. This immediately helps us to understand the meaning of the fourth column. In mythology it is a universal characterof men born from the earth that at the moment they emerge from the depth, they either cannot walk or do it clumsily. This is the case of the chthonian beings in the mythology of the Pueblo: Masauwu, who leads the emergence, and the chthonian Shumaikoli are lame ("bleeding-foot," "sore-foot"). The same happens to the Koskimo of the Kwakiutl after they have been swallowed by the chthonian monster, Tsiakish: when they returned to the surface of the earth "they limped forward or tripped sideways." Then the common feature of the fourth column is: the persistence of the autochthonous origin of man. It follows that column four is to column three as column one is to column two. The inability to connect two kinds of relationships is overcome (or rather replaced) by the positive statement that contradictory relationships are identical inasmuch as they are both self-contradictory in a similar way. Although this is still a provisional formulation of the structure of mythical thought, it is sufficientat this stage. 4.10. Turning back to the Oedipus myth, we may now see what it means. The myth has to do with the inability, for a culture which holds the belief that mankind is autochthonous (see, for instance, Pausanias, VIII, xxix, 4: vegetals provide a model for humans), to find a satisfactorytransition between this theory and the knowledge that human beings are actually born from the union of man and woman. Although the problem obviously cannot be solved, the Oedipus myth provides a kind of logical tool which, to phrase it coarsely,replacesthe original problem: born from one or born from two? born from different or born from same? By a correlation of this type, the overrating of blood relations is to the underrating of blood relations as the attempt to escape autochthony is to the impossibility to succeed in it. Although experiencecontradicts theory, social life verifies the cosmology by its similarity of structure. Hence cosmology is true. 4.11.o. Two remarks should be made at this stage. 4.11.1. In order to interpret the myth, we were able to leave aside a point which has until now worried the specialists, namely, that in the earlier (Homeric) versions of the Oedipus myth, some basic elements are lacking, such as Jocasta killing herself and Oedipus piercing his own eyes. These events do not alter the substance of the

The StructuralStudy of Myth 435 the myth although they can easily be integrated, first one as a new case of autodestruction (columnthree) while the secondis anothercaseof crippledness (column four). At the same time there is somethingsignificantin these additionssince the shift from foot to head is to be correlated with the shift from: autochthonous origin negatedto: self-destruction. a 4.11.2. Thus, our method eliminates problemwhich has been so far one of the main obstacles the progress mythological to of studies,namely,the questfor the true of we version,or the earlierone. On the contrary, definethe myth as consisting all its versions;to put it otherwise:a myth remainsthe sameas long as it is felt as such.A may strikingexampleis offeredby the fact that our interpretation take into account, and is certainlyapplicable the Freudianuse of the Oedipusmyth. Although the to, Freudianproblemhas ceasedto be that of autochthony versusbisexualreproduction, it is still the problemof understanding one can be bornfromtwo: how is it that how we do not have only one procreator, a motherplus a father?Therefore, only not but versionsof the but Freudhimself,shouldbe includedamongthe recorded Sophocles, versions. Oedipusmyth on a par with earlieror seeminglymore"authentic" follows. If a myth is made up of all its variants, 5.0. An importantconsequence structural Thus, afteranalyzingall the analysisshouldtake all of them into account. known variantsof the Thebanversion,we shouldtreatthe othersin the same way: collateral includingAgave,Pentheus,and Jocasta line first,the tales aboutLabdacos' aboutLycoswith AmphionandZetosas the cityfounders; herself;the Thebanvariant more remotevariants Dionysos(Oedipus'matrilateral concerning cousin),and Athenian legends where Cecropstakes the place of Kadmos,etc. For each of them a and similarchartshouldbe drawn,and then compared reorganized to according the the serpentwith the parallelepisodeof Kadmos;abandonfindings:Cecropskilling of ment of Dionysos with abandonment Oedipus; "SwollenFoot" with Dionysos i.e. walking obliquely; Europa'squest with Antiope's; the foundation of loxias, Thebes by the Spartoior by the brothersAmphion and Zetos; Zeus kidnapping Europaand Antiopeand the samewith Semele;the ThebanOedipusand the Argian charts,each dealingwith a Perseus,etc. We will then have severaltwo-dimensional in order to be organized a three-dimensional variant,

Fig. 1.

436 Journal of American Folklore so that three differentreadingsbecomepossible:left to right,top to bottom,frontto showsthat back.All of thesechartscannotbe expected be identical;but experience to so difference be observed with otherdifferences, thata logical to any may be correlated treatmentof the whole will allow simplifications, final outcomebeing the structhe turallaw of the myth. to 5.1. One may objectat this point that the task is impossible performsince we can only work with known versions. it not possiblethata new versionmight alter Is but the picture?This is true enough if only one or two versionsare available, the as becomestheoretical soon as a reasonably objection largenumberhas beenrecorded Let will tell, (a numberwhich experience progressively at leastas an approximation). of us make this point clearby a comparison. the furniture a roomand the way it is If in arrangedin the room were known to us only throughits reflection two mirrors of an almostinfinitenumber on oppositewalls,we would theoretically dispose placed of mirror-images which would provide us with a completeknowledge.However, would become shouldthe two mirrors obliquelyset, the numberof mirror-images be four or five such images would very likely give us, if not very small; nevertheless, at coverageso that we would feel sure that completeinformation, least a sufficient no largepieceof furniture missingin our description. is 5.2. On the other hand, it cannot be too stronglyemphasizedthat all available on If comments the Oedipuscomplex variants shouldbe takeninto account. Freudian versionof are a part of the Oedipusmyth, then questionssuch as whetherCushing's There is no becomeirrelevant. the Zuni origin myth shouldbe retainedor discarded one true versionof which all the othersare but copiesor distortions. Every version belongsto the myth. havegiven diswhy workson generalmythology 5.3. Finallyit can be understood have First,comparative mythologists couragingresults.This comesfrom two reasons. versionsinsteadof using them all. Second,we haveseenthat the pickedup preferred structural analysisof one variantof one myth belongingto one tribe (in some cases, When we use severalvariants even one village) alreadyrequirestwo dimensions. becomesthreeof the same myth for the sametribeor village,the frameof reference the dimensional and as soon as we try to enlargethe comparison, numberof dimento to sions requiredincreases such an extent that it appears quite impossible handle them intuitively.The confusionsand platitudeswhich are the outcomeof comparaframesof refertive mythologycan be explainedby the fact that multi-dimensional ones. ence cannotbe ignored,or naivelyreplaced two- or three-dimensional Indeed, by of on the cooperation mathein comparative mythologydependslargely progress relations maticianswho would undertaketo expressin symbolsmulti-dimensional which cannotbe handledotherwise. an 6.o. In orderto check this theory,3 attemptwas made in I953-54 towardsan of all the known versionsof the Zunioriginand emergence exhaustive myth: analysis I923; Bunzel, I932; Benedict, I934. I904; Parsons, Cushing, I883 and I896; Stevenson,
Furthermore, a preliminary attempt was made at a comparison of the results with similar myths in other Pueblo tribes, Western and Eastern. Finally, a test was undertaken with Plains mythology. In all cases, it was found that the theory was sound, and light was thrown, not only on North American mythology, but also on a previously unnoticed kind of logical operation, or one known only so far in a wholly

3 Thanks are due to an unsolicited, but deeply appreciated, grant from the Ford Foundation.

The Structural Study of Myth

437

different context. The bulk of material which needs to be handled almost at the beginning of the work makes it impossible to enter into details, and we will have to limit ourselves here to a few illustrations. 6.i. An over-simplified chart of the Zuni emergence myth would read as follows:
INCREASE DEATH

mechanicalgrowth of vegetals (used as ladders) food value of wild plants

emergence led by BelovedTwins

sibling incest

gods kill children

migration led by the two Newekwe sibling sacrificed (to gain victory)

mgical contest with peopleof the dew (collecting wild food versus cultivation)

food value of cultivatedplants

sibling adopted (in exchangefor corn)

periodical characterof agriculturalwork

war against Kyanakwe (gardeners versushunters) war led by two war-gods salvationof the tribe (center of the world found)

hunting

warfare

sibling sacrificed (to avoid flood)

DEATH

PERMANENCY

6.2. As may be seen from a global inspection of the chart, the basic problem consists in discovering a mediation between life and death. For the Pueblo, the problem is especially difficult since they understand the origin of human life on the model

438

Journalof AmericanFolklore

of vegetal life (emergence from the earth). They share that belief with the ancient Greeks, and it is not without reason that we chose the Oedipus myth as our first example. But in the American case, the highest form of vegetal life is to be found in agriculture which is periodical in nature, i.e. which consists in an alternation between life and death. If this is disregarded, the contradiction surges at another place: agriculture provides food, therefore life; but hunting provides food and is similar to warfare which means death. Hence there are three different ways of handling the problem. In the Cushing version, the difficulty revolves around an opposition between activities yielding an immediate result (collecting wild food) and activities yielding a delayed result-death has to become integrated so that agriculture can exist. Parsons' version goes from hunting to agriculture,while Stevenson's version operatesthe other way around. It can be shown that all the differences between these versions can be rigorously correlatedwith these basic structures.For instance:
CUSHING PARSONS STEVENSON

Gods

Kyanakwe

allied, use fiber stringson their bows (gardeners)

Kyanakwe alone, use fiber string

Gods Men

allied, use fiber string

VICTORIOUS OVER

VICTORIOUS OVER

VICTORIOUS OVER

Men

alone, use sinew (hunters) (until men shift to fiber)

Gods l allied, use Men f sinew string

Kyanakwe alone, use sinew string

Since fiber strings (vegetal) are always superior to sinew strings (animal) and since (to a lesser extent) the gods' alliance is preferableto their antagonism, it follows that in Cushing's version, men begin to be doubly underprivileged (hostile gods, sinew string); in Stevenson, doubly privileged (friendly gods, fiber string); while Parsons' version confronts us with an intermediary situation (friendly gods, but sinew strings since men begin by being hunters). Hence:
CUSHING PARSONS STEVENSON

gods/men fiber/sinew

+ -

+ +

6.3. Bunzel's version is from a structural point of view of the same type as Cushing's. However, it differs from both Cushing's and Stevenson's inasmuch as the latter two explain the emergence as a result of man's need to evade his pitiful condition, while Bunzel's version makes it the consequence of a call from the higher powers -hence the inverted sequences of the means resorted to for the emergence: in both Cushing and Stevenson, they go from plants to animals; in Bunzel, from mammals to insects and from insects to plants. 6.4. Among the Western Pueblo the logical approach always remains the same; the starting point and the point of arrival are the simplest ones and ambiguity is met with halfway:

The Structural Study of Myth life mechanical plants wild plant food cultivated plant food life destroyed hunt war death growth of

439

animal food

Fig. 2.
The fact that contradiction in appears the middleof the dialectical processhas as its resultthe production a doubleseriesof dioscuric of the purposeof which is to pairs betweenconflicting terms: operatea mediation
I. 2.

3 divine messengers 2 ceremonial clowns

2 war-gods

homogeneous pair: siblings (brother dioscurs(2 brothers) and sister)

heterogeneous pair: couple (husband and wife) grandmother/grandchild

which consists in combinatoryvariants of the same function; (hence the war attribute the clownswhich has given rise to so many queries). of Some Centraland EasternPueblosproceed otherway around. the 6.5. They begin the identity of hunting and cultivation(first corn obtainedby Gameby stating Fathersowing deer-dewclaws), they try to deriveboth life and deathfrom that and centralnotion. Then, insteadof extremetermsbeing simple and intermediary ones as amongthe Westerngroups,the extremetermsbecomeduplicated(i.e., duplicated the two sistersof the EasternPueblo) while a simple mediatingterm comesto the of foreground(for instance,the Poshaiyanne the Zia), but endowedwith equivocal attributes. Hence the attributes this "messiah" be deducedfrom the place it of can occupiesin the time sequence: good when at the beginning(Zuni,Cushing),equivocal in the middle (CentralPueblo), bad at the end (Zia), exceptin Bunzel where the sequence reversed has beenshown. is as 6.6. By using systematically kind of structural this analysisit becomespossibleto of organizeall the known variants a myth as a seriesforminga kind of permutation group,the two variants placedat the far-ends beingin a symmetrical, thoughinverted, to relationship eachother. 7.0. Our method not only has the advantageof bringingsome kind of orderto

Journal of American Folklore what was previously chaos;it also enablesus to perceivesomebasiclogicalprocesses should be distinwhich are at the root of mythicalthought.Three main processes guished. 7.I.0. The tricksterof Americanmythologyhas remainedso far a problematic North Americahis partis assigned everypractically figure.Why is it that throughout where to eithercoyoteor raven?If we keep in mind that mythicalthoughtalways works from the awarenessof oppositionstowardstheir progressive mediation,the We for those choicesbecomesclearer. need only to assumethat two opposite reason termswhich termswith no intermediary by alwaystend to be replaced two equivalent becomes andthe mediator thenone of the polarterms allow a thirdone as a mediator; by replaced a new triadandso on. Thus we have:
440
INITIAL PAIR FIRST TRIAD SECOND TRIAD

Life Agriculture Herbivorous animals animals Carrion-eating (raven; coyote) Hunt War Death animalsarelike preyanimals(they With the unformulated argument: carrion-eating eat animalfood), but they are also like food-plant (they do not kill what producers Pueblostyle:ravensareto gardensas preyanimals they eat). Or, to put it otherwise, animalsmay be called ones. But it is also clear that herbivorous are to herbivorous and on that first to act as mediators the assumption they are like collectors gatherers eaters) while they can be used as animalfood though not themselves (vegetal-food of hunters.Thus we may have mediators the firstorder,of the secondorder,and so and of on, whereeachtermgives birthto the next by a doubleprocess opposition correlation. 7.I.I. This kind of processcan be followedin the mythologyof the Plains where to we mayorderthe dataaccording the sequence: between earthandsky mediator Unsuccessful (Starhusband's wife) Heterogeneous of mediators pair (grandmother/grandchild) Semi-homogeneous of mediators pair and (Lodge-Boy Thrown-away) Preyanimals

The Structural Studyof Myth we Whileamong Pueblo have: the earth mediator between andsky Successful (Poshaiyanki) of pair Semi-homogeneous mediators and (Uyuyewi Matsailema) Homogeneous of mediators pair (theAhaiyuta)
7.1.2.

44I

on On the otherhand,correlations appear a transversal (thisis axis; may connotation the rootposein of trueevenon the linguistic level;see the manifold is between to Tewaaccording Parsons: mist,scalp, coyote, etc.).Coyote intermediary in and herbivorous carnivorous the sameway as mistbetween andearth;scalp sky is corn wild and war between andhunt (scalp war-crop); smutbetween plants culti"nature" "culture"; and between refuse between vatedplants; villageand garments This stringof mediators, one roof if ashesbetween andhearth(chimney). outside; callthemso, not onlythrows lighton wholepiecesof NorthAmerican mythmay and be at the sametimethe Game-Master the giver the Dew-God may ology-why as or are and of raiments be personified an "Ash-Boy"; whythe scalps mistproducis with or whythe Game-Motherassociated cornsmut;etc.-but it alsoprobably ing; to the See, dailyexperience. for instance, way corresponds a universal of organizing fromLatin the French vegetal for nielle, nebula; luck-bringing attributed smut; power and the torefuse shoe)andashes chimney-sweepers); compare American (old (kissing Cinderella: phallicfigures(mediator both with the Indo-European cycle Ash-Boy of male and female);master the dew and of the game;ownersof fine between class into andsocial raiments; (low bridges marrying highclass);though impossible diffusion hasbeensometimes as recent contended Ash-Boy since to interpret through in but are and Cinderella symmetrical inverted everydetail(whilethe borrowed to talein America-Zuni Cinderella Turkey-Girl-is parallel theprototype):
EUROPE AMERICA

Sex Status Family Appearance status Sentimental Transformation etc.

female double family pretty girl likes nobody her clothed with luxuriously supernatural help

male no family uglyboy in hopeless withgirl love of with stripped ugliness supernatural help

function thetrickster of that explains sinceits position 7.2.0.Thus,the mediating is halfway two terms mustretain he of between polar something thatduality, namely an ambiguous equivocal and character. the trickster But figureis not the onlyconsomemythsseemto devotethemselves the taskof formof mediation; to ceivable

442

Journal of American Folklore

exhaustingall the possiblesolutionsto the problemof bridgingthe gap betweentwo betweenall the variantsof the Zuni emergence and one. For instance,a comparison us with a seriesof mediatingdevices,each of which createsthe next myth provides of and one by a process opposition correlation: sibling married grandmother- terms>triad >4 bisexual> trickster> dioscurs> messiah> being pair couple grandchild group is In Cushing's version,this dialectic accompanied a changefromthe spacedimenby sion (mediatingbetweensky and earth) to the time dimension(mediatingbetween summerand winter,i.e., betweenbirthand death). But while the shift is beingmade from spaceto time, the final solution(triad) re-introduces space,sincea triadconsists in a dioscurpair plus a messiah simultaneously present;and while the point of in formulated termsof a spacereferent(sky and earth) this was departure ostensibly was nevertheless implicitlyconceivedin terms of a time referent(first the messiah calls; then the dioscursdescend).Thereforethe logic of myth confrontsus with a double,reciprocal exchangeof functionsto which we shall returnshortly(7.3.). but character the trickster, we for of Not only can we account the ambiguous 7.2.I. anotherpropertyof mythicalfiguresthe world over, namely, may also understand for that the same god may be endowedwith contradictory attributes; instance,he of the be good and bad at the sametime.If we compare variants the Hopi myth may becomes of the origin of Shalako,we may orderthem so that the followingstructure apparent: ' Muyingwu) (y: Masauwu) Masauwu) (Shalako: x) (Masauwu: ' (Muyingwu: to valuescorresponding the fact that in the two where x and y represent arbitrary variantsthe god Masauwu,while appearingalone insteadof associated "extreme" with anothergod, as in varianttwo, or being absent,as in three,still retainsintrinsically a relativevalue.In variantone, Masauwu(alone) is depictedas helpfulto mankind (though not as helpful as he could be), and in versionfour, harmfulto manin kind (thoughnot as harmfulas he couldbe); whereas two, Muyingwuis relatively than Masauwu,and in three, Shalakomore helpful than Muyingwu. more helpful variants: the serieswhen ordering Keresan We find an identical ' I Tiamoni) (y: Poshaiyanki) x) (Poshaiyanki: - (Lea:Poshaiyanki) (Poshaiyanki: is particularlyinterestingsince sociologistsare 7.2.2. This logical framework with it on two otherlevels:first,with the problemof the pecking alreadyacquainted to order among hens; and second,it also corresponds what this writer has called exchangein the field of kinship.By recognizingit alsoon the level of mythigeneral its cal thought,we may find ourselvesin a betterpositionto appraise basicimporstudiesand to give it a more inclusivetheoretical tance in sociological interpretation. in in Finally,when we have succeeded organizinga whole seriesof variants 7.3.0. the a kind of permutation group,we arein a positionto formulate law of thatgroup. Although it is not possibleat the presentstage to come closerthan an approximate in need to be mademoreaccurate the future,it seems which will certainly formulation to that every myth (consideredas the collectionof all its variants)corresponds a formulaof the followingtype:
fx(a) : fy(b) fx(b) : aI(y)

The Structural Study of Myth

443

where,two termsbeing given as well as two functionsof theseterms,it is statedthat a relationof equivalence existsbetweentwo situations when termsand relations still are inverted,under two conditions:i. that one term be replacedby its contrary; 2. that an inversion madebetweenthefunctionand the termvalueof two elements. be This formula becomeshighly significantwhen we recall that Freud con7.3.1. in sideredthat two traumas(and not one as it is so commonlysaid) are necessary orderto give birthto this individualmyth in which a neurosisconsists. tryingto By apply the formula to the analysisof those traumatisms(and assumingthat they to i. we correspond conditions and 2. respectively) shouldnot only be ableto improve but would find ourselvesin the much desiredpositionof developingside by side it, the sociological the psychological and of aspects the theory;we may alsotake it to the and it verification. laboratory subject to experimental 8.0. At this point it seemsunfortunate that,with the limitedmeansat the disposal of French anthropological no research, furtheradvancecan be made. It should be which is extremely emphasizedthat the task of analyzingmythologicalliterature, secretarial help. A variant of average length needs several hundred cards to be properlyanalyzed.To discovera suitablepatternof rows and columns for those cards,specialdevicesare needed,consistingof verticalboardsabouttwo meterslong and one and one-halfmetershigh, wherecardscanbe pigeon-holed movedat will; and in orderto build up three-dimensional modelsenablingone to compare variants, the severalsuch boardsare necessary, and this in turn requiresa spaciousworkshop,a kind of commodityparticularly in unavailable WesternEuropenowadays.Furtheras soon as the frameof reference becomesmulti-dimensional more, (which occursat an early stage, as has been shown in 5.3.) the board-system to be replacedby has cards which in turn requireI.B.M. equipment,etc. Since there is little perforated that such facilitieswill become availablein France in the near future, it is hope much desiredthat some Americangroup,betterequippedthan we are here in Paris, will be inducedby this paperto starta projectof its own in structural mythology. 8.I.o. Threefinalremarks may serveas conclusion. 8.I.i. First,the questionhas often beenraisedwhy myths,and moregenerally oral are or literature, so much addictedto duplication, of triplication quadruplication the same sequence.If our hypotheses accepted, answeris obvious:repetition are the has as its functionto make the structure the myth apparent. we haveseenthat the of For structure the myth permitsus to organizeit into diachronical of synchro-diachronical sequences(the rows in our tables) which should be read synchronically (the colstructure which seepsto the surface,if one umns). Thus, a myth exhibitsa "slated" may sayso, throughthe repetition process. 8.I.2. However,the slatesare not absolutely identicalto eachother.And sincethe a purposeof myth is to providea logicalmodel capableof overcoming contradiction achievement as it happens, contradiction real), a theoretically the is if, (an impossible infinitenumberof slateswill be generated, eachone slightlydifferent fromthe others. until the intellectual which has originated is it Thus, myth grows spiral-wise impulse exhausted.Its growth is a continuousprocesswhereasits structure remainsdiscontinuous.If this is the casewe shouldconsiderthatit closelycorresponds, the realm in of the spokenword,to the kind of being a crystalis in the realmof physicalmatter.
bulky, and of breaking it down into its constituent units, requires team work and

444 Journal of American Folklore This analogymay help us understand betterthe relationship myth on one hand of to bothlangueandparoleon the other. 8.I.3. Prevalent attempts to explain alleged differencesbetween the so-called mind and scientific thought have resorted to qualitativedifferences "primitive" between the working processes the mind in both caseswhile assumingthat the of remained objectsto which they were applyingthemselves verymuchthe same.If our is we differentview, namely,that interpretation correct, are led towarda completely the kind of logic which is used by mythical thought is as rigorous as that of modern science,and that the differencelies not in the quality of the intellectual process,but in the natureof the things to which it is applied.This is well in agreement with the situationknown to prevailin the field of technology:what makesa steel ax superior a stoneone is not that the firstone is bettermadethan the second. to are equallywell made,but steelis a different They thing than stone.In the sameway we may be able to show that the same logicalprocesses put to use in myth as in are and that man has alwaysbeen thinkingequallywell; the improvement lies, science, of not in an allegedprogress man'sconscience, in the discovery new thingsto of but whichit may applyits unchangeable abilities. ScolePratiquedes Hautes 1tudes, Sorbonne Paris,France