How did Lévi-Strauss analyze myths?
I analyzed myths by treating them as systems of signs, breaking each myth into minimal units called 'mythemes'—basic narrative elements like a hero killing a monster or a sibling rivalry. I then arranged these mythemes in a grid to reveal recurring binary oppositions and their transformations across different versions. For instance, in *The Raw and the Cooked*, I showed how South American myths about fire, water, and cooking transform into each other through logical operations like inversion or substitution. The goal was not to find a single 'original' myth but to demonstrate that all variants are part of a coherent structure, reflecting the mind's innate tendency to classify and resolve contradictions.
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