Mitologike I-III

Mythologikes (Mythologiques, I–IV: Raw and Cooked – Le Cru et le Cuit, 1964; From Honey to Ashes – Du Miel aux Cendres, 1966; The origin of table manners - L'Origine des manières de table, 1968; The naked man - L'Homme nu, 1971)

In the book, the author traces a myth from South America and all its variations from group to group through Central America and finally in the Arctic Circle, thus tracing the cultural evolution of that myth from one end of the Western Hemisphere to the other. He accomplishes this in typical structuralist fashion, by examining the basic structure of connections between story elements before focusing on the content of the story itself. While Wild Thought described Levi-Strauss's comprehensive theory, Mythology is an extended, four-volume example of analysis. Rich in detail and extremely long, it has a smaller readership than the much shorter and more accessible Wild Thought, despite its position as Levi-Strauss's most significant work.