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What structural mythology owes to Henri Hubert
Author(s) -
Strenski Ivan
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(198510)21:4<354::aid-jhbs2300210406>3.0.co;2-w
Subject(s) - mythology , structuralism (philosophy of science) , levi strauss , phenomenology (philosophy) , philosophy , epistemology , theology , humanities
In pointing to Durkheimian precedents for structuralism, Claude Lévi‐Strauss typically indicates Marcel Mauss. Yet, although Mauss wrote much on myth, Lévi‐Strauss never cites Mauss as setting precedents for structural mythology. This seems so for at least two reasons. First, Henri Hubert, not Mauss, turns out to be the real myth specialist of Emile Durkheim's original équipe , thus making the équipe 's theory primarily Hubert's. Second, Hubert's theory of myth is only problematically structural. More consistent with theories at odds with structuralism, especially Maurice Leenhardt's religious phenomenology, Durkheimian mythology must be displaced if structural mythology is to distinguish itself.