The New Comparative Mythology: An Anthropological Assessment of the Theories of Georges Dumézil

This book is concerned with the theories and methods developed by perhaps the most original, and at the same time most controversial, student of comparative Indo-European mythology since the turn of the century: Georges Dumézil, professor of Indo-European civilization in the Collège de France and for many years a director of studies in the Section des Sciences Religieuses of the École des Hautes Études of the Sorbonne. Introduction 1 PART I: The Background 1. The Nature and Location of Proto-Indo-European Culture 23 2. 2. Comparative Mythology, Frazerian Anthropology, and Durkheimian Sociology 32 PART II: The Evolution of the System 3. The Formative Phase: 1924-1938 43 4. The Developmental Phase: 1938-1949 57 5. The Florescent Phase: 1949 to the Present 99 PART III: Disciples, Critics, and an Anthropological Assessment 6. The Disciples and the Critics 143 7. An Anthropological Assessment 193 References Cited 213 Index 235