LEVI-STRAUSS - INFLUENCES

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>LEVI-STRAUSS</FONT><BR> THE STRUCTURAL ANTHROPOLOGIST</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Influences</B></FONT><P> Lévi-Strauss speaks of his three mistresses - geology, psycho-analysis and Marxism. What he learned from these is that "true reality is never the most obviously real". Geologists see beyond the apparent chaos of landscape, and identify symbols revealing millions of years of the earth's history. Psychoanalysis likewise penetrates beneath the surface confusion of experience to heart of reality. <A HREF="../18/18f01.html" TARGET="_top">Marx</A> explains historical change not in terms of events and individuals, but in terms of forces beyond these. Likewise, the structural anthropologist must "grasp, beyond the conscious and always shifting images which men hold" and seek the truths beneath the superficial differences of human cultures.<P> ("Tristes Tropiques" 60-1)<P> Lévi-Strauss developed his interest in anthropology at a time when anthropologists like Franz Boas were rejecting an evolutionary approach to the subject but were experiencing difficulty in identifying any general laws of culture which would legitimise anthropology as a science.<P> The methodology of Lévi-Strauss involved a structuralist analysis of anthropology. In this, he owes much to linguistic <A HREF="../t03/g051.html" TARGET="_top">structuralism</A> as outlined by Saussure. Saussure speculated that what we call reality or truth is a construct of the language used to describe it. In response to <A HREF="../23/23f01.html" TARGET="_top">Sartre's</A> maxim that each man is what he makes of himself, structuralists declare that man is made what he is by structures beyond his conscious will or individual control. It is not the man who speaks the language, but the language which speaks the man.<P> Lévi-Strauss had much admiration for <A HREF="../14/14f01.html" TARGET="_top">Rousseau</A>, claiming that his approach was a precursor to 20th century theoretical models of research, even describing him as a proto-anthropologist. His admiration for Rousseau was matched by his contempt for Sartre and <A HREF="../t03/g018.html" TARGET="_top">existentialism</A> which he described as a "shop-girl's philosophy". He rejects Sartre's emphasis on a free consciousness which chooses its nature and identity as it progresses through time. Mankind is best understood as collective mind which does not know at a conscious level how it has organised its world. The logic by which means human societies and cultures have been structured remains largely unconscious.<P> There can be little doubt of the influence Lévi-Strauss has exercised over modern thinking even beyond his academic field of anthropology. He became a cultural icon in both France and the USA. Most significant is his exposure of the Eurocentric (western) view that dominated anthropological thinking. "By setting mankind apart from the rest of creation, Western <A HREF="../t03/g022.html" TARGET="_top">humanism</A> has deprived it of a safeguard. The moment man knows no limit to his power, he sets about destroying himself."<P> Another French writer, Michel Foucault goes even further in his condemnation of the Eurocentric view. Like Lévi-Strauss, he spoke of his efforts as "archaeology". The primary aim of Foucault's archaeology is to uncover the unconscious laws of language that precondition transformations in knowledge. He uses structural analysis to "decode" forms of knowledge concluding that the Western notion of "Man" is a construct of the modern scientific era. His studies focus on how knowledge functions as a social power. Truth and legitimacy becomes monopolized by one group who categorize other forms of thinking as deviancy. He predicts that a future change in the dominant knowledge system in the post-modern era will result in "the death of Man".<P> ("The Order of Things") <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>