Welsh Mythology: A Neo-Structuralist Analysis By Jonathan Miles- ...

Americas are both transformed by history and act to annul it (1996, 225–242). In the following pages of this book, a tantalisingly similar, yet notably different, system of balance is uncovered, and the relation between this system and Lévi-Strauss’ exploration of twins will benefit from some foregrounding here.

1.6. BINARIES, BALANCE, AND TWINS

In The Story of Lynx, Lévi-Strauss suggested that the type of transformative dynamism that the previous section explored can be the result of what he termed the ‘dynamic disequilibrium of twins’ (1996, 63). This theory is best understood in the context of his previous major work, The Jealous Potter, wherein Lévi-Strauss developed his hypothetical structure at the level of S¹, which, while proposed very early on, was later supported by extensive analysis.⁴³ This canonical formula suggested that fundamentally, we are always presented with two sets of terms which are qualified by two functions; however, during mythic play, the functions move so that they are aligned with the opposite term and, dramatically, one of the terms becomes an inverted function while one of the functions becomes the corresponding term, giving the formula f_x(a) : f_y(b) :: f_x(b) : f_a–l (y) (Lévi-Strauss 1963, 228). A good example of this formula in action is a group of myths revolving around the theme of containment that can be found throughout South America and as far north as California (Lévi-Strauss 1998, 163). These myths all relate, in some form or another, the story of a hero whose body is both contained within and issues forth a tube of some sort, before the body itself becomes analogous to a tube, thus giving the following structure: contained (body) : container (tube) :: contained (tube) : body^–1(container) (ibid.).

The key issue here, for this book, is the transformative aspect that is inherent in Lévi-Strauss’ underlying structure.⁴⁴ It is this transformative element that allows myth to be at once dynamic and static, to incorporate and absorb the effects of history without recourse to a linear history. This transformative aspect of myth is clearly presented in Lévi-Strauss’ discussion of American Genesis myths, which seemingly revolve around