Levi-Strauss and his structuralism

Autumn term essay = 1500 words

- One of the greatest social scientists of the 20 th century

- French; died at age 99
- Studied philosophy, law, anthropology
- 1935 went to Brazil to do fieldwork. Travelled extensively in the Amazon
to study indigenous people
- Didnt stay very long in each
- 2nd world war had to run to US as he was viewed as a Jew
- Collected info for his book The elementary structures of Kinship in US
during the war, and finished it in France after the war
- Worked in many institutions and inspired many

- Introduced the school of anthropology Structuralism (Levi-Strauss not

Structural functionalism)
- Not an individualistic approach of anthropology
- Interested in structures of human mind
- Structures are always social in character

- Not like British structural functionalists

- Fascinated by the logic of structure. The structure of human cognition.
- Talks about universal structural principles some basic ones are universal
and can be found in all cultures
- The content may vary from one culture to another; cultures are like
languages

- The Incest Taboo

- Do we avoid it for biological reasons? He said no. Its a rationalization
- Its a social invention and is the very first rule. Before that, we had no
rules, no society, and wilderness The incest taboo is how culture began.
- We wanted to make alliances with others and have relationships with
others for survival marry out or die out. This is a social rule. Marry
outside the kinship group; in another tribe/community
- It is not about whom not to marry but about whom to marry. Forced to
marry outsiders.

- Reciprocity Levi-Strauss uncle, Marcel, spoke of it.

- From societys point of view exchange is good; isolation is bad.

- Elementary societies are those that see marriage exchanges and

reciprocal marriage rules.
- Complex societies are (like Western societies) where marriages are
complex and not due to exchanges

- Alliance theory structuralism. Simple societies how people were

related with each other.
- Descent theory structural functionalism. British model; kinship models

- Roman Jakobson (met in US) structural linguistics

- The concept of language
- Language is prior to birth and exists after we die. Similarly, cultures are
like that
- Not to be confused with psycho-analysis. Instead, he was interested in the
principles of thinking at the social level.
- Deep structures; unconscious structures of the mind
- What is the logic behind marriage?
- Exchange and alliance are structural principles

- Myth
- In his book the savage mind his analysis begins
- People are subjected to an unconscious feeling of implementing order in
the world
- Not merely practical or function, but derived from the desire to know.

- Criticism
- Universalism why do the principles of structures have to be the same
everywhere?
- Myth he doesnt explain myth in terms of what real people think and
practice in everyday life, but in terms of hypothetical mental principles.
Practical concerns affect the way people think.
- Ethnography some of his data was not very accurate.
- His model is too artificial; too intellectual. His model is quite ethnocentric,
may not make sense to others.
- Authority arrogant and old-fashioned way of thinking.
- Women in his kinship theory, they appear voiceless objects of exchange.
Women appear just as the sisters of brothers the brothers are the real
agents.

- Support (see pp slide)

- Anthropological hero 99 years of trying hard
- Tried to come up with a model of understanding culture.
- A less mechanical model to analyze culture.