Leach, Genesis, and structural analysis: a critical evaluation

Abstract

The first half of the article critically evaluates Leach's classic analysis of the Genesis myth. The two primary hypotheses advanced by Leach are (1) that Genesis proceeds by introducing oppositions and by then introducing mediating concepts, and (2) that the two Creation stories and the Cain and Abel story are in many ways structurally equivalent. A comparison of his arguments with the text of Genesis, however, indicates that although there is much support for the premise that Genesis proceeds by introducing binary oppositions, there is virtually no support for the argument that concepts are introduced that mediate these oppositions, or that the stories being considered by Leach are structurally equivalent. The second half of the article shows that structural analysis can nevertheless be fruitfully applied to Genesis. Using a variation of a transformation rule developed by Lévi‐Strauss, I demonstrate that a common structure underlies the Genesis account of the Fall of Man and its account of Cain and Abel. Using a second transformation rule originally developed by Leach, I demonstrate that five of the stories in Genesis—those concerning Cain, Noah, Lot, Jacob, and Joseph—all form an interrelated set, and that the pattern underlying this set has exactly the same structure as Lévi‐Strauss's own theory relating to the effects of incest and exogamy upon a society.