Introduction to a Science of Mythology, Vol. 1: The Raw and the Cooked

Mythologiques #2

by Claude. Levi-Strauss

La fascinación que los mitos ejercen sobre sus creyentes es apenas mayor que la fascinación que ejercen sobre los académicos que los estudian. Este es el caso de Lé su método -una de las más celebres aportaciones a la disciplina antropológica del siglo XX- parte de la idea de que todo pensamiento humano puede ser reducido a un patrón fundamental, que consiste, por una parte, en la oposición de dos categorías y, por la otra, en la mediación gracias a una tercera.En este segundo volumen de Mitológicas, Lévi-Strauss emprende un análisis de las relaciones entre los mitos de la miel y el tabaco. La miel tiene como característica la seducción y el deseo, conduce al hombre a una degradación y representa la caída al estado salvaje. El tabaco, por el contrario, se quema y, por lo tanto, se cocina; representa dominio de la naturaleza y supone la vuelta al estado de cultura. A través de la oposición miel-tabaco el autor descubre significados insospechados y penetra en lo más profundo de los procesos de pensamiento. El resultado no podría ser más el hombre civilizado no se distingue del primitivo en su calidad de pensamiento, sino solo en los medios para expresarlo.

Genres: Anthropology, Mythology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Sociology, Social Science, Ethnography

387 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second volume of Lévi-Strauss' series Mythologiques, this follows the same method as in the first volume (Le cru et le cuit/The raw and the cooked) which it continues (and which I read last month). As I could not find a free or inexpensive copy of this volume in French, and I already have physical copies of the last two in English, I had to switch to reading the translation.

The first volume began with myths about the origins of cooking, or culture as opposed to nature, and expanded to other myths which Lévi-Strauss considered as "transformations" where traits were transformed along various axes according to discoverable laws. In this volume, the subject is myths about honey and tobacco, which are investigated in the same way. In fact, it is almost all about honey and other foods associated with the dry season. Lévi-Strauss considers that these myths are connected with initiation, and have the double function of teaching the boys about providing food and choosing wives. As with the first book, it is much too complex to attempt to summarize.

When I am reading a fairly long e-book, I generally alternate with physical books, so I have something to read while my Kindle is recharging. I was reading this along with Leonard Susskind and André Cabannes, General Relativity: The Theoretical Minimum, which is also concerned with transformations (of coordinate systems) according to specific rules, and there seemed to be a similarity between the two discussions. I don't know which was more difficult, the relativity book which introduced advanced mathematics which I had to learn as I went along or this book which refers to almost three hundred myths by numbers, many from the first volume (my memory couldn't cope with that.) Both books had my brain giving me "buffer overflow" errors. Perhaps this represents a "structure" of early twentieth-century scientists?

[Mariam Rawwas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Expands the exploration began in The Raw and the Cooked by examining myths regarding the matter and means of cooking, nature and culture, which relate to the origin of tobacco and honey, the infra- and ultra-culinary, respectively. Relevant here is how these myths function as ideologemes legitimizing a sexual division of labor, providing honey or supplying meat, and forbidding the act of "seduction", enforcing the rules of exogamy. The derivation of the "equivalence" between the sexes on the basis of their reversibility within the context of M303 in the case of the Tacana is fascinating.

[A YOGAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

In diesem Band seziert der „Macher“ des Strukturalismus die süßen und bitteren Mythen Amerikas mit einer Präzision, bei der man beinahe den Rauch indigener Lagerfeuer riechen kann. Lévi-Strauss schafft eine eindrucksvolle Lichtung im aromatischen Dickicht und zeigt, dass selbst der Honig einer logischen Struktur folgt, die weit über bloßen Gaumenkitzel hinausreicht.

[Alienne Laval · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vol. 2 of the four volume "Mythologica". Structural anthropology and myth research.