STRUCTURES OF LANGUAGE AND MYTH: AN ANALYSIS OF A GOONIYANDI TEXT

In this paper we analyse a text in Gooniyandi (southern Kimberley, Western Australia), a myth about the acquisition of fire. Our analysis, broadly structuralist-functionalist in orientation, uses a number of complementary modes of myth analysis, including a variety of structuralism which draws on Lévi-Strauss. Our main point, however, differs from his concerns. It is that the analysis of a myth (indeed, of any text) cannot be pursued independently of its language, and of the linguistic choices implemented by the narrator. Relevant choices include not just lexical, but also grammatical ones, selections of grammatical construction (and patterns in them), not, of course, in the language of translation (English), but in the language of the text. We suggest that our method should be generally applicable to myths in any language.     

ESR dating of the Neanderthal site, Kebara Cave, Israel

In 1985 a Neanderthal skeleton was found in the cave of Kebara in southern Mt. Carmel. Electron spin resonance (ESR) dates have been obtained on tooth enamel of gazelles found in layer X, just overlying the layer in which the skeleton was found. Assuming early uptake of uranium by the teeth, they yield an age of 60 ± 6 ka; assuming gradual, linear uptake of uranium yields an age of 64 ± 6 ka. Both age estimates are consistent with a previous estimate for the skeleton, based on TL dating of burnt flint, of 60 ± 4 ka.