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What the Work Explores

In “The Structural Study of Myth,” first published as an essay in 1955 and later integrated into his seminal 1958 work Structural Anthropology, Claude Lévi-Strauss revolutionized the field of folklore and anthropology by introducing the methodology of structuralism. Rather than viewing myths as primitive attempts at science or mere historical records, Lévi-Strauss treats myth as a complex system of communication, akin to language. The work explores the fundamental idea that the meaning of a myth does not reside in its narrative content or the sequence of events, but in the internal relationships between its various components.

The Concept of the Mytheme

Lévi-Strauss proposes that myths are composed of constituent units which he terms “mythemes.” Drawing inspiration from structural linguistics—specifically the work of Ferdinand de Saussure—he argues that just as phonemes (the smallest units of sound) have no meaning in isolation but gain significance through their relationship to other phonemes, mythemes function only when organized into bundles of relations. These bundles form the “deep structure” of the myth. By breaking down myths into these short, functional sentences and arranging them on a grid, Lévi-Strauss demonstrates that myths have both a chronological dimension (the story as it is told) and a structural dimension (the timeless message or logic it conveys).

Binary Oppositions and Mediation

A central theme of the work is the identification of binary oppositions. Lévi-Strauss asserts that the human mind naturally organizes reality into pairs of opposites: life versus death, nature versus culture, raw versus cooked, or endogamy versus exogamy. He explores the hypothesis that the primary function of myth is to provide a logical model capable of overcoming a contradiction. When a culture faces a paradox that cannot be resolved in reality, the myth serves as a symbolic mediator, bridging the gap between conflicting concepts through a series of narrative transformations.

The Oedipus Example

To illustrate his method, Lévi-Strauss famously analyzes the myth of Oedipus. He deconstructs the narrative into segments, such as the overrating of blood relations (Antigone burying her brother despite the law) and the underrating of blood relations (Oedipus killing his father). By arranging these incidents, he suggests the myth is not merely a story about a cursed king, but a complex intellectual tool used to grapple with the contradiction between the belief that mankind is autochthonous (born from the earth) and the knowledge that humans are actually born from the union of a man and a woman.

Historical and Cultural Context

The mid-20th century marked a significant shift in the social sciences, moving away from the historical-particularism of earlier anthropologists who sought to trace the specific origins and migrations of individual stories. Lévi-Strauss wrote “The Structural Study of Myth” during a period when the “linguistic turn” was beginning to influence diverse academic disciplines. By applying the principles of linguistics to cultural artifacts, he offered a way to study human culture as a universal phenomenon.

This work was produced in the aftermath of World War II, a time of intense intellectual cross-pollination between Europe and the United States. While in exile in New York during the war, Lévi-Strauss encountered the structural linguist Roman Jakobson, whose theories on the binary nature of language deeply informed Lévi-Strauss’s approach to mythology. The resulting structuralist movement sought to find the universal laws governing human thought, attempting to prove that “primitive” logic was every bit as rigorous and sophisticated as modern scientific thought, merely applied to different materials.

Who This Work Is For

This text is primarily intended for those interested in the intersection of anthropology, linguistics, and the philosophy of mind. It appeals to readers who wish to look beneath the surface of traditional narratives to find the underlying architecture of human belief. While the methodology is rigorous and academic, the work is essential for anyone seeking to understand how symbols function within a larger cultural system.

Scholars of folklore find the work indispensable for its move away from the search for the “original” version of a myth; Lévi-Strauss argues that all versions of a myth are equally valid, as they all contribute to the structural whole. For the general reader interested in the psychology of belief, the work provides a fascinating look at how the human brain organizes information and resolves existential tensions through storytelling.

Further Reading

Readers who find Lévi-Strauss’s approach compelling may also explore the following works to broaden their understanding of structuralism and narrative analysis:

• Morphology of the Folktale by Vladimir Propp: A Russian formalist approach that predates structuralism but shares the interest in the underlying mechanics of stories.
• Mythologies by Roland Barthes: An application of semiotic analysis to modern, everyday myths in popular culture.
• The Raw and the Cooked by Claude Lévi-Strauss: The first volume of his monumental Mythologiques series, which expands the structural method to the culinary and cosmological myths of South American indigenous groups.
• Course in General Linguistics by Ferdinand de Saussure: The foundational text that established the linguistic principles upon which structural anthropology was built.

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