The Structural Study of Myth and Totemism

Edmund Leach

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135032937
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Designed to provoke controversy, the papers in this volume concentrate on two main themes: the study of myth and totemism. Starting with an English translation of La Geste d'Asdiwal, which is widely considered to be the most brilliant of all of Lévi-Strauss's shorter expositions of his technique of myth analysis, the volume also contains criticism of this essay. The second part of the volume discusses how far Lévi-Strauss's treatment of totemism as a system of category formation can be correlated with the facts that an ethnographer encounters in the field.
First published in 1967.

PART I

The Structural Study of Myth

Claude Lévi-Strauss

The Story of Asdiwal

Since 1963 Lévi-Strauss and his associates have published a variety of ‘structural analyses’ of myth, but prior to the appearance of Le Cru et le cuit in the autumn of 1964 ‘La Geste d'Asdiwal’ was, by general consent, the most successful of all these pieces. ‘Asdiwal’ has twice appeared in French, but this is the first English translation. The Editor is deeply indebted to Professor Lévi-Strauss for granting permission to publish the translation and to Mr Nicholas Mann for making it.

I

This study of a native myth from the Pacific coast of Canada has two aims. First, to isolate and compare the various levels on which the myth evolves: geographic, economic, sociological, and cosmological – each one of these levels, together with the symbolism proper to it, being seen as a transformation of an underlying logical structure common to all of them. And, second, to compare the different versions of the myth and to look for the meaning of the discrepancies between them, or between some of them; for, since they all come from the same people (but are recorded in different parts of their territory), these variations cannot be explained in terms of dissimilar beliefs, languages, or institutions.

The story of Asdiwal, which comes from the Tsimshian Indians, is known to us in four versions, collected some sixty years ago by Franz Boas (1895; 1902; 1912; 1916).

We shall begin by calling attention to certain facts which must be known if the myth is to be understood.

The Tsimshian Indians, with the Tlingit and the Haida, belong to the northern group of cultures on the Northwest Pacific coast. They live in British Columbia, immediately south of Alaska, in a region which embraces the basins of the Nass and Skeena Rivers, the coastal region stretching between their estuaries, and, further inland, the land drained by the two rivers and their tributaries. The Nass in the North and the Skeena in the south both flow in a northeast-southwesterly direction, and are approximately parallel. The Nass, however, is slightly nearer North-South in orientation, a detail which, as we shall see, is not entirely devoid of importance.

This territory was divided between three local groups, distinguished by their different dialects: in the upper reaches of the Skeena, the Gitskan; in the lower reaches and the coastal region, the Tsimshian themselves; and in the valleys of the Nass and its tributaries, the Nisqa. Three of the versions of the myth of Asdiwal were recorded on the coast and in Tsimshian dialect (Boas, 1895, pp. 285–288; 1912, pp. 71–146; 1916, pp. 243–245 and the comparative analysis, pp. 792–824), the fourth at the mouth of the Nass, in Nisqa dialect (Boas, 1902, pp. 225–228). It is this last which, when compared with the other three, reveals the most marked differences.

Like all the peoples on the Northwest Pacific Coast, the Tsimshian had no agriculture. During the summer, the women's work was to collect fruit, berries, plants, and wild roots, while the men hunted bears and goats in the mountains and seals and sea-lions on the coastal reefs. They also practised deep-sea fishery, catching mainly cod and halibut, but also herring nearer the shore. It was, however, the complex rhythm of river-fishing that made the deepest impression upon the life of the tribe. Whereas the Nisqa were relatively settled, the Tsimshian moved, according to the seasons, between their winter villages, which were situated in the coastal region, and their fishing-places, either on the Nass or the Skeena.

At the end of the winter, when stores of smoked fish, dried meat, fat, and preserved fruits were running low, or were even completely exhausted, the natives would undergo periods of severe famine, an echo of which is found in the myth. At such times they anxiously awaited the arrival of the candlefish¹ which would go up the Nass (which was still frozen to start with) for a period of about six weeks in order to spawn (Goddard, 1934, p. 68). This would begin about 1 March, and the entire Skeena population would travel along the coast in boats as far as the Nass in order to take up position on the fishing-grounds, which were family properties. The period from 15 February to 15 March was called, not without reason, the ‘Month when Candlefish is Eaten’ and that which followed, from 15 March to 15 April, the ‘Month when Candlefish is Cooked’ (to extract its oil). This operation was strictly taboo to men, whereas the women were obliged to use their naked breasts to press the fish; the oil-cake residue had to be left to become rotten from maggots and putrefaction and, despite the pestilential stench, it had to be left in the immediate vicinity of the dwelling-houses until the work was finished (Boas, 1916, pp. 398–399 and 44–45).

Then everyone would return by the same route to the Skeena for the second major event, which was the arrival of the salmon fished in June and July (the ‘salmon Months’). Once the fish was smoked and stored away for the year, the families would go up to the mountains, where the men would hunt while the women laid up stocks of fruit and berries. With the coming of the frost in the ritual ‘Month of the Spinning Tops’ (which were spun on the ice), people settled down in permanent villages for the winter. During this period the men used sometimes to go off hunting again for a few days or a few weeks. Finally, towards 15 November, came the ‘Taboo Month’, which marked the inauguration of the great winter ceremonies, in preparation for which the men were subjected to various restrictions.

Let us remember, too, that the Tsimshian were divided into four non-localized matrilineal clans, which were strictly exogamous and divided into lineages, descent lines, and households: the Eagles, the Ravens, the Wolves, and the Bears, also, that the permanent villages were the seat of chiefdoms (generally called ‘tribes’ by native informants); and finally that Tsimshian society was divided into (three) hereditary castes with bilateral inheritance of caste status (each individual was supposed to marry according to his rank): the ‘Real People’ or reigning familes, the ‘Nobles’, and the ‘People’, which last comprised all those who (failing a purchase of rank by generous potlatches) were unable to assert an equal degree of nobility in both lines of their descent (Boas 1916, pp. 478–514; Garfield, 1939, pp. 173–174 and 177–178; Garfield, Wingert & Barbeau, 1951, pp. 1–34).

II

Now follows a summary of the story of Asdiwal taken from Boas (1912) which will serve as a point of reference. This version was recorded on the coast at Port Simpson in Tsimshian dialect. Boas published the native text together with an English translation.

Famine reigns in the Skeena valley; the river is frozen and it is winter. A mother and her daughter, both of whose husbands have died of hunger, both remember independently the happy times when they lived together and there was no dearth of food. Released by the death of their husbands, they simultaneously decide to meet and set off at the same moment. Since the mother lives down-river and the daughter up-river, the former goes eastwards and the latter westwards. They both travel on the frozen bed of the Skeena and meet half-way.

Weeping with hunger and sorrow, the two women pitch camp on the bank at the foot of a tree, not far from which they find, poor pittance that it is, a rotten berry, which they sadly share.

During the night, a stranger visits the young widow. It is soon learned that his name is Hatsenas,² a term which means, in Tsimshian, a bird of good omen. Thanks to him, the women start to find food regularly, and the younger of the two becomes the wife of their mysterious protector and soon gives birth to a son, Asdiwal (Asiwa, Boas, 1895; Asi-hwil, Boas, 1902).³ His father speeds up his growth by supernatural means and gives him various magic objects: a bow and arrows which never miss for hunting, a quiver, a lance, a basket, snow-shoes, a bark raincoat, and a hat, all of which will enable the hero to overcome all obstacles, make himself invisible, and procure an inexhaustible supply of food. Hatsenas then disappears and the elder of the two women dies.

Asdiwal and his mother pursue their course westwards and settle down in her native village, Gitsalasert, in the Skeena Canyon (Boas, 1912, p. 83). One day a white she-bear comes down the valley.

Hunted by Asdiwal, who almost catches it thanks to his magic objects, the bear starts to climb up a vertical ladder. Asdiwal follows it up to the heavens, which he sees as a vast prairie, covered with grass and all kinds of flowers. The bear lures him into the home of its father, the sun, and reveals itself to be a beautiful girl, Evening-Star. The marriage takes place, though not before the Sun has submitted Asdiwal to a series of trials, to which all previous suitors had succumbed (hunting wild goat in mountains which are rent by earthquakes; drawing water from a spring in a cave whose walls close in on each other; collecting wood from a tree which crushes those who try to cut it down; a period in a fiery furnace). But Asdiwal overcomes them all thanks to his magic objects and the timely intervention of his father. Won over by his son-in-law's talents, the Sun finally approves of him.

Asdiwal, however, pines for his mother. The Sun agrees to allow him to go down to earth again with his wife, and gives them, as provisions for the journey, four baskets filled with inexhaustible supplies of food, which earn the couple a grateful welcome from the villagers, who are in the midst of their winter famine.

In spite of repeated warnings from his wife, Asdiwal deceives her with a woman from his village. Evening-Star, offended, departs, followed by her tearful husband. Half-way up to heaven, Asdiwal is struck down by a look from his wife, who disappears. He dies, but is at once regretted and is brought back to life by his celestial father-in-law.

For a time, all goes well; then, once again, Asdiwal feels a twinge of nostalgia for earth. His wife agrees to accompany him as far as the earth, and there bids him a final farewell. Returning to his village, the hero learns of his mother's death. Nothing remains to hold him back, and he sets off again on his journey downstream.

When he reaches the Tsimshian village of Ginaxangioget, he seduces and marries the daughter of the local chief. To start with, the marriage is a happy one, and Asdiwal joins his four brothers-in-law on wild goat hunts, which, thanks to his magic objects, are crowned with success. When spring approaches, the whole family moves house, staying first at Metlakatla, and then setting off by boat for the river Nass, going up along the coast. A head wind forces them to a halt and they camp for a while at Ksemaksén. There, things go wrong because of a dispute between Asdiwal and his brothers-in-law over the respective merits of mountain-hunters and sea-hunters. A competition takes place – Asdiwal returns from the mountains with four bears that he has killed, while the brothers-in-law return empty-handed from their sea expedition. Humiliated and enraged, they break camp, and, taking their sister with them, abandon Asdiwal.

He is picked up by strangers coming from Gitxatla, who are also on their way to the Nass for the candlefish season.

As in the previous case, they are a group of four brothers and a sister, whom Asdiwal wastes no time in marrying. They soon arrive together at the River Nass, where they sell large quantities of fresh meat and salmon to the Tsimshian, who have already settled there and are starving.

Since the catch that year is a good one, everyone goes home: the Tsimshian to their capital at Metlakatla and the Gitxatla to their town Laxalan, where Asdiwal, by this time rich and famous, has a son. One winter's day, he boasts that he can hunt sea-lions better than his brothers-in-law. They set out to sea together. Thanks to his magic objects, Asdiwal has a miraculously successful hunt on a reef, but is left there without food or fire by his angry brothers-in-law. A storm gets up and waves sweep over the rock. With the help of his father, who appears in time to save him, Asdiwal, transformed into a bird, succeeds in keeping himself above the waves, using his magic objects as a perch.

After two days and two nights the storm is calmed, and Asdiwal falls asleep exhausted. A mouse wakes him and leads him to the subterranean home of the sea-lions whom he has wounded, but who imagine (since Asdiwal's arrows are invisible to them) that they are victims of an epidemic. Asdiwal extracts the arrows and cures his hosts, whom he asks, in return, to guarantee his safe return. Unfortunately, the sea-lions' boats, which are made of their stomachs, are out of use, pierced by the hunter's arrows. The king of the sea-lions therefore lends Asdiwal his own stomach as a canoe and instructs him to send it back without delay. When he reaches land, the hero discovers his wife, and his son alike, inconsolable. Thanks to the help of this good wife, but bad sister (for she carries out the rites which are essential to the success of the operation), Asdiwal makes killer-whales out of carved wood and brings them to life. They break open the boats with their fins and bring about the shipwreck and death of the wicked brothers-in-law.

But once again Asdiwal feels an irrepressible desire to revisit the scenes of his childhood. He leaves his wife and returns to the Skeena valley. He settles in the town of Ginadâos, where he is joined by his son, to whom he gives his magic bow and arrows, and from whom he receives a dog in return.

When winter comes, Asdiwal goes off to the mountains to hunt, but forgets his snow-shoes. Lost, and unable to go either up or down without them, he is turned to stone with his lance and his dog, and they can still be seen in that form at the peak of the great mountain by the lake of Ginadâos (Boas, 1912, pp. 71–146).

III

Let us keep provisionally to this version alone in order to attempt to define the essential points of its structure. The narrative refers to facts of various orders. First, the physical and political geography of the Tsimshian country, since the places and towns mentioned really do exist. Second, the economic life of the natives which, as we have seen, governs the great seasonal migrations between the Skeena and Nass Valleys, and during the course of which Asdiwal's adventures take place. Third, the social and family organization, for we...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• original_title Page
• original_Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• PART I: The Structural Study of Myth
• PART II The Structural Study of Totemism
• Author Index And Bibliography Cross-Reference