Zen and The Birds of Appetite - The Study of Zen

This one's a little over my head, but I'm sure someone out there will enjoy it:

'There is nothing,' says Levi-Stauss, 'which can be conceived of or understood short of the basic demands of its structure.' He is talking about primitive kindship systems, and of the key role played in them by maternal uncles. And I must admit fro the outset that uncles have nothing to do with Zen; nor am I about to prove that they have. But the statement is universal. 'There is nothing which can be understood short of the basic demands of its structure.' This raises a curious question; I wonder if Zen could somehow be fitted into the patterns of a structuralist anthropology? And if so, can it be 'understood?' And at once one sees that the question can probably be answered by 'yes' and by 'no'.