Structuralism and "The Story of Asdiwal"

Abstract

<p>This thesis shows that the criticisms of Levi-Strauss' analysis, entitled "The Story of Asdiwal", arise out of the careless application of structuralist principles on the part of Levi-Strauss. They are not due to problems inherent in structuralism itself. To further this point, the story of Asdiwal is re-analyzed using a rigourous application of structuralism which avoids the mistakes made by Levi-Strauss. That is, it takes all the versions into account, considers the ethnographic material in detail, and uses those ethnographic sources with attention to focus and method of collection. The result is an analysis which shows the theme of the story of Asdiwal to be rivalry while the basic binary opposition is between competition and cooperation and not between the matriline and the patriline as Levi-Strauss supposed. </p>