3. Lévi-Strauss and history

Question 1

Who was Lévi-Strauss?

Answer 1

• French anthropologist
• Central to the development of structural anthropology
• He argued that the “savage” mind had the same structures as the “civilized” mind and that human characteristiscts were the same everywhere
• He does not conceptualize our past as unilinear, he counters the idea that there exists only one univeral unifrm history and form of progress
• His most famous books are ‘Tristes tropiques’ and ‘La pensée sauvage’

Question 2

What is the definition of structuralism?

Answer 2

The search for the underlying patterns of thought in all forms of human action

Question 3

Lévi-Strauss has a different take on history than the evolutionists and diffusionists, explain it based on ‘dual societies’

Answer 3

• Dual socieities: when a society is divided into exatcly two social or ritual groups, each part is called a moiety
• Evolutionists would argue that dual organization was a necessary stage of social development, they see it as a more simple and previous form of a now more complex society. Even if there is nothing that demonstrates that a moiety division ever existed in this particular society.
• Diffusionists would select the most developed and complex form as representing the archaic form of the instituion and would consider all other forms as the product of migrations and borrowings from the common cradle. Thus going from more complex to simple
• In both cases one type is arbitrarily selected and made the model from which one attempts, through speculation, to derive all the others
• Lévi-Strauss wants to take into account the specific (oral) history

Question 4

In what ways are ethnography and history different/alike?

Answer 4

• Alike: both history and ethnography are concerned with societies other than the one in which we live. Whether this otherness is due to remoteness in time or space is of secondary importance compared to the basic similarity of perspective
• Different:
  history organizes the facts on the basis of “conscious expressions of social life”
  while ethnography does this on the basis of “unconscious nature of collective phenomena”. Uncoscious rules and laws, structures, which remain invisible. There is an unconscious structure underneath

Question 5

Explain the Structuralist linguistics model (synchrony-diachrony) and how Lévi-Strauss applies this model to cultural events

Answer 5

• Diachronic linguistics: the study of the historical development and evolution of a language
• Synchronic linguistics: differentiates between signifiant and signifié or in other words the word itself and what it represents. Word vs language
• Lévi-Strauss: uses the syncrhonic take. Lived-in order of things (the word) vs. thought of order of things (the language). He looks at the unconcious things of a culture, langue above parole.

Question 6

How can we explain ‘kinship’ based on structuralism?

Answer 6

• On the surface it seems that there are thousands of variations, each society regulates kinship and marriage in its own specific way (lived-in-orders)
• But underneath it there are structures and rules
  1. Three possible kinship structures (elementary, semi-complex and complex)
  2. Two forms of exchange: wife-givers and wife-takers
  3. One underlying general rule: incest-taboo

=> there are universal mental realities or unconscious basic rules

Question 7

How is the title ‘La pensée sauvage’ misinterpreted?

Answer 7

It’s French for ‘wild pansy (a flower)’ and refers to the wild structures of our brains. It is often translated as ‘the savage mind’ and interpreted as the mind of the savages instead of the savage brain

Question 8

Explain the concept of warm and cold societies

Answer 8

Strauss does not want to define societies as being modern or primitive. According to him the difference lies in a choice that each society makes to be organized in a certain way.
* Warm societies are thermodynamic, rapidly changing. With a lot of energy being put in moving forward where new is better. History is a story of progress
* Cold societies use their energy for maintaining the status quo. They are mechanical, stationary. It stays and remains due to a conscious choice

Question 9

How does Sartre make the distinction between modern and primitive societies and why does it anger Strauss?

Answer 9

Sartre makes the distinction between:
* Analytical reason which is static and tipical for the primitive man
* Dialectial reason which is critical and self-questioning. Typical for Western societies

In this way he’s calling a lot of societies ‘uncapable’ which is unacceptable for Strauss