"In French structural anthropology, the concern with the elementary forms of minds and culture, and in British social anthropology, the
idiosyncratic concern with social structure." Structuralism is a name applied to the analysis of cultural systems (kinship,marriage, and laws) in terms of the structured relations among their elements. Edmund Leach referred to structuralism as, "a way of looking at things" (175 Anthropological reader). Structuralists are concerned with exploring the mechanism of communication between conscious human beings but take a wider view of what constitutes communication" (ibid). In the feminist anthropology text Gender and Difference in a Globalizing World refers to structuralism as that "human behavior is determined by structures 'set of laws are structures themselves' that are regulatory and not dependent on anything outside of themselves" 181). Although we all know that Mr. Claude was the father of structuralism, we should refer to him as the contemporary father (according to the encyclopedia).
Structuralism began in linguistics and spread to anthropology, philosophy, literary criticism, and other fields. Its founder was Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913), a Swiss linguist who wanted to move beyond the historical interests that dominated his field in the early twentieth century. Although the work he published during his lifetime was entirely in the historical tradition, he left behind lectures given between 1906 and 1911 that set the scene for a new synchronic, structural analysis of language. These were published posthumously as the Course in General Linguistics (1916). There are three main approaches to structuralism in Anthropology.
*The main approaches to structuralism were found online at encyclopedia.com*
First, the classic French structuralism of Claude Lévi-Strauss and his followers maintains a search for universal principles. In his kinship studies, for example, Lévi-Strauss sought the system of all possible systems and the structural principles that differentiate one kinship system from another
Second, J. P. B. de Josselin de Jong (1886–1964) and his students from the 1930s onward, working mainly in the East Indies, were interested in patterns occurring within that culture area. Later scholars in Holland, Belgium and Britain sought similar patterns elsewhere, and the idea was that each cluster of cultures had its own system, and an anthropologist could better understand a society in terms of its contrast to related cultures within that area rather than on its own, (This directly relates to the ways we conduct ethnographic research as noted in the top header of "readings."
Third, British structuralists, such as Sir Edmund Leach (1910–1989) and Rodney Needham (1923–2006), in the 1960s and 1970s emphasized relations between elements within a given culture.
Lévi-Strauss and structuralism (He is the structuralist "Father")
Lévi-Strauss believed that culture arises from structures which lay deep in the human mind and focused his efforts on uncovering the logic behind such human creations as art, myth, and social organizations. He argued that "the human mind works the same way everywhere because the human brain is structured the same everywhere" (ibid). He believed that all thought is dualistic, dividing the world into sets of oppositional categories like black and white, male and female, and nature, and culture" (ibid).
Lévi-Strauss viewed cultural expressions like myth and kinship as efforts to resolve fundamental paradoxes set up by binary thinking. He drew on linguistic models. Essentially, "if and when universals are reached, they will appear as open structures, one will always be able to add definitions and to complete, enlarge on, or correct earlier ones" (Mascia-Lees 163).
The dualistic thought of Lévi-Strauss led to poststructuralism. The binary places categories in opposition, is socially constructed, and arbitrary.
idiosyncratic concern with social structure." Structuralism is a name applied to the analysis of cultural systems (kinship,marriage, and laws) in terms of the structured relations among their elements. Edmund Leach referred to structuralism as, "a way of looking at things" (175 Anthropological reader). Structuralists are concerned with exploring the mechanism of communication between conscious human beings but take a wider view of what constitutes communication" (ibid). In the feminist anthropology text Gender and Difference in a Globalizing World refers to structuralism as that "human behavior is determined by structures 'set of laws are structures themselves' that are regulatory and not dependent on anything outside of themselves" 181). Although we all know that Mr. Claude was the father of structuralism, we should refer to him as the contemporary father (according to the encyclopedia).
Structuralism began in linguistics and spread to anthropology, philosophy, literary criticism, and other fields. Its founder was Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913), a Swiss linguist who wanted to move beyond the historical interests that dominated his field in the early twentieth century. Although the work he published during his lifetime was entirely in the historical tradition, he left behind lectures given between 1906 and 1911 that set the scene for a new synchronic, structural analysis of language. These were published posthumously as the Course in General Linguistics (1916). There are three main approaches to structuralism in Anthropology.
*The main approaches to structuralism were found online at encyclopedia.com*
First, the classic French structuralism of Claude Lévi-Strauss and his followers maintains a search for universal principles. In his kinship studies, for example, Lévi-Strauss sought the system of all possible systems and the structural principles that differentiate one kinship system from another
Second, J. P. B. de Josselin de Jong (1886–1964) and his students from the 1930s onward, working mainly in the East Indies, were interested in patterns occurring within that culture area. Later scholars in Holland, Belgium and Britain sought similar patterns elsewhere, and the idea was that each cluster of cultures had its own system, and an anthropologist could better understand a society in terms of its contrast to related cultures within that area rather than on its own, (This directly relates to the ways we conduct ethnographic research as noted in the top header of "readings."
Third, British structuralists, such as Sir Edmund Leach (1910–1989) and Rodney Needham (1923–2006), in the 1960s and 1970s emphasized relations between elements within a given culture.
Lévi-Strauss and structuralism (He is the structuralist "Father")
Lévi-Strauss believed that culture arises from structures which lay deep in the human mind and focused his efforts on uncovering the logic behind such human creations as art, myth, and social organizations. He argued that "the human mind works the same way everywhere because the human brain is structured the same everywhere" (ibid). He believed that all thought is dualistic, dividing the world into sets of oppositional categories like black and white, male and female, and nature, and culture" (ibid).
Lévi-Strauss viewed cultural expressions like myth and kinship as efforts to resolve fundamental paradoxes set up by binary thinking. He drew on linguistic models. Essentially, "if and when universals are reached, they will appear as open structures, one will always be able to add definitions and to complete, enlarge on, or correct earlier ones" (Mascia-Lees 163).
The dualistic thought of Lévi-Strauss led to poststructuralism. The binary places categories in opposition, is socially constructed, and arbitrary.