The mythical mind of the Older Stone Age – a Lévi-Straussian reappraisal. (3rd July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fuglestvedt, Ingrid
• Is Part Of: Time & mind. Volume 12:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 187
• Page End: 195
• Publication Date: 2019-07-03
• Subjects: Lévi-Strauss -- rock art -- Late Mesolithic northern Europe -- moteme; Archaeology -- Periodicals; Cognition and culture -- Periodicals; 930.101
• DOI: 10.1080/1751696X.2019.1645520
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-696X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Lévi-Strauss' concept of the mythical mind, alternatively spoken of as 'the Wild Mind', or 'logic of the concrete' is the focus of this article. First, it aims at explaining how the mind – and what is 'on' the minds of people in a given context – is expressed through diverse media of art, like myths. Through the brief example of Lévi-Strauss' myth analysis, I attempt to explain how the dilemmas, values and ambiguities of a given group is told through the mythic narrative with all their elements and actors and moreover, how myth analysis reveals such 'oppositions' through the narratives' smallest elements, the mythemes and their internal relationship. Second, this article aims at explaining how rock art is connected to the myths of its context of production, but not as a picture version of the narrative. While myths can be understood through mythemes, rock art can be analyzed by way of the motemes . Motemes are defined as depicted thematizations of topics of great value to the makers of this rock art, and as such, analytical elements which serve as a source to the understanding of the Late Mesolithic mind in northern Europe.