Inspired by Claude Levi-Strauss' recent work Histoire de lynx (Paris, 1991) and focussing  on the fundamental Amerindian mythical notion of dual structure,  this paper develops and re-examines Levi-Strauss' structural theory of myth in four aspects:

     Part One gives a general analysis of fundamental structure of Levi-Strauss' work on myths as a whole, defines the logic of structure analysis of myths and puts into proper perspective the questions it poses.

    Part Two briefly reviews the goal and significance of the structure analysis of myth and argues that it provides a model of scientific method for social sciences as a whole. In analyzing a series of Amerindian myths, Levi-Strauss' sheds new light on the logical development and structure of myth. He show that the intellectual process involved in mythical thought is as rigorous as that of scientific thinking--an important theme which he develops length in his recent book-Histoire de lynx.

    Part there is the most developed.  It emphasizes , first of all , the differences between structuralism and formalism from a theoretical point of view. More attention is then given to the process of structural analysis of myth based on the organization of mythemes which results from a play of binary or ternary oppositions. The true constituent units of a  myth are not the isolated relations but clusters of such relations, and  combined so as to produce a meaning. Every myth ( considered as the aggregate of all its variants ) is an intermediary entity between a statistical aggregate of molecules and the molecular structures themselves.

    Pare four, comparing the four families of structures ( mathematical, linguistic, musical, and mythical ), the writer, attempt to penetrate the deep structure of myth which can be treated as a conceptual model for other aspects of culture.