LEVI-STRAUSS - METHOD

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>LEVI-STRAUSS</FONT><BR> THE STRUCTURAL ANTHROPOLOGIST</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Method</B></FONT><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>STRUCTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY</B></FONT><BR> Functionalist anthropology follows the procedures of the <A HREF="../t03/g012.html" TARGET="_top">empirical</A> scientist - observation in the field, hypothesis formation. It focusses on the differences between cultures and tries to explain how specific practices and beliefs serve to ensure group cohesion and survival. For structural anthropology, theory, not observation, is the starting point. Rather than seek to explain the observed differences between cultures, it seeks the underlying universal structures common to all men. Different cultures are seen as mere sub-systems of the totality of human culture (l'esprit humain). Structural theory emphasizes our common humanity and focuses on the collective and unconscious properties of human culture.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>LINGUISTIC APPROACH</B></FONT><BR> Lévi-Strauss based his methodology on that of the structural linguists. For them, our construction of meaning was determined by the formal structure of language, and hence by the functioning of the brain. For Lévi-Strauss, social systems are a set of symbolic structures within the totality of culture. They are a set of coded relations, a language which can be decoded through structural analysis. The mechanism of decoding is based on the principle that man tends naturally to think in binary opposites, and that living in social groups requires mediation between binary extremes. The elaborate language of kinship systems is thus seen as a form of mediation through exchange of women which binds the group. Women become categorised as available for partnering or taboo.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>ANTHROPOLOGY AND HISTORY</B></FONT><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>"The historian and the anthropologist have undertaken the same journey on the same road in the same direction; only their orientation is different. The anthropologist goes forward, seeking to attain, through the conscious, of which he is always aware, more and more of the unconscious; whereas the historian advances, so to speak, backward, keeping his eyes fixed on concrete and specific activities from which he withdraws only to consider them from a more complete and richer perspective. A true two-faced Janus, it is the solidarity of the two disciples that makes it possible to keep the whole road in sight."<P> (Introduction to "Structural Anthropology")</BLOCKQUOTE> <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>