From the dominance of science in the seventeenth century onwards, we have rejected mythology as the creation of a superstitious and primitive mind. Only now are we approaching a more comprehensive understanding of the nature and role of myth in human history. In the five lectures contained in this book, distinguished French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss offers the knowledge of a lifetime devoted to the interpretation of myths and the attempt to discover the significance they hold for the intellectual power of humanity.