Do “Culture Heroes” Exist? A Dialogue With Luc de Heusch on the Limits of the Structuralist Approach to Myth

Abstract

This article argues the inadequacy of the structuralist framework of analysis as applied to Central African myths of foundation and tries to demonstrate that a dichotomous approach can inhibit the full understanding of these narratives, often misrepresenting and curtailing their meaning. Instead, it is claimed that blurredness, ambiguity, “consubstantiality,” and fluidity are, in Central Africa, the assortment of logical and symbolic instruments able to convey, as well as constantly recreate, the prodigious intricacy of meanings that emanate from mythological thinking.