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Asdiwal crumbles: a critique of Lévi‐Straussian myth analysis 1
Author(s) -
THOMAS L. L.,
KRONENFELD J. Z.,
KRONENFELD D. B.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1976.3.1.02a00090
Subject(s) - mythology , argument (complex analysis) , categorization , epistemology , ethnography , philosophy , sociology , theology , anthropology , biochemistry , chemistry
Lévi‐Strauss' use of ethnographic sources, of definitional terms, and his analytic categorization of incidents in the Asdiwal story is arbitrary, inconsistent, and even distorts the story text on occasion. His argument, in addition to being circular in places, is internally inconsistent, especially as regards the claim that when myths make negative evaluations, they always involve the opposite of real life, a claim which is, in fact, both supported and refuted.