Description
Book SynopsisThe French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss scoured the Amazon forest for the myths of its primitive peoples. He found that a certain logic governed the construction of these mythshis mythologique; he regarded this logic as innate in the human mind and thus universal. Despite this claim of universality, Lévi-Strauss deliberately sidestepped the myths of the biblical religions as well as the myths of modern societies. This proved to be a missed opportunity since these myths lend themselves very well to his mode of analysis.
The apocalyptic narrative is the ongoing myth of Western society. It makes its first appearance in the Bible in the story of the Exodus and in the Passion of Christ. Its characteristic feature is its opening scenario of one or another form of unendurable oppression whether the Pharaoh in Egypt for the Jews or the bondage of the body for Christians. Lord and servant is the binary pair that prevails and through a process of inversion leads to the K
Table of Contents
Preface – Acknowledgments – The Hunt for "Alienation" – Lévi-Strauss: "The Architecture of the Mind" – The Hebrew Bible – The Christian Bible – The Replica – Augustine – Luther – Hegel – Marx – Nazism – Conclusion – Index – About the Author.
