Summary Of Myth And Meaning By Levi Strauss

Great Essays
Question #1 Part A: Anthropologists ask: How do different cultures define art, and what purposes does art serve? Use any type of art which you would like to explain the anthropological perspective on art. Be sure to refer to some key concepts discussed in the class lectures related to art.
Part B: The anthropology of art does not treat such artifacts as “exotic objects,” but instead examines them for the roles they play in people’s lives. According to the class lecture, how were exotic “artificial curiosities” the antithesis of an anthropological understanding of art? Typically from an anthropological perspective, Western, or perhaps more specifically modern American and European art is categorized as being done either for pleasure or with
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Use specific examples from class lecture and from his book Myth and Meaning.
Part B: In Chapter 3 of Myth and Meaning, Levi Strauss discusses the prevalence of hero twins in the myths of many Native American cultures. He poses the following question: Why are people with harelips and twins considered similar? Why harelips? Why twins? Why are they put together? Explain his answers to those questions. Levi-Strauss has an interesting way of looking at myths, and despite some criticisms from other anthropologists it works quite well. He looks at myths from different cultures to find similarities and differences to compare and contrast them. Similar to a linguist, he examines the different myths and creation stories of different cultures and looks to find elements that are similar, what he calls ‘mythemes,’ a play on linguistic ‘phonemes.’ These are repeating ideas that are found in multiple different areas of the world, and are overall the same. In fact, language and myth are intertwined as “myths are language in [a] sense - systems of thought.” This idea of myths as a culture’s thoughts is prevalent through all of Levi-Strauss’ research and theories, being summed up most eloquently as, “Myth is used to reflect on and symbolically mediate or resolve universal and culturally specific contradictions or oppositions.” Many myths that Levi-Strauss looks at have to do with conflicts that
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Two children could also be considered twins if they’re from different mothers, if, “they were born in exactly the same kind of circumstances, at least from a moral and a psychological point of view.” The same thing can be said if the twins have different fathers: Levi-Strauss tells of a myth from the Tupinambas, a tribe from the coast of Brazil, about a woman who’s seduced by a devious Trickster. She conceives both with him and her legitimate husband and gives birth to twins, one from each father. Because of the opposition in parentage, the twins have opposing features. “One is brave, the other a coward; one is the protector of the Indians, the other of the white people...” But even if these twins are at first similar, they will have different journeys later on which will succeed in separating them further. This further division in life is something Levi-Strauss calls “a basic characteristic of all the myths in South America or North

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