Structuralism Flashcards
What is Structural Analysis?
Structural Analysis is:
- Meaning produced & reproduced through practices, phenomena, activities
- Systems of signification
- According to structural theory in anthropology meaning is produced and reproduced within a culture through various practices, phenomena and activities that serve as systems of signification.*
How or why is Structural Analysis used?
Structural Analysis is used:
- by Levi-Strauss
- to discover deep structures within activities
- A structuralist approach may study activities as diverse as food-preparation and serving rituals, religious rites, games, literary and non-literary texts, and other forms of entertainment to discover the deep structures by which meaning is produced and reproduced within the culture.*
Where was Structural Analysis first cited?
Levi-Strauss
1958
Structural Anthropology
What is ‘Universal Mind’ (Levi-Strauss’ conceptualisation)?
Universal Mind is:
- Social & cultural phenomena transcending the human mind
- Human mind is one and the same
- Individual subjects have no control over the workings of universal mind
- The transcendental condition of all social and cultural phenomena. Notwithstanding the cultural differences between the several parts of mankind, the human mind is everywhere one and the same and that it has the same capacities.*
How or why is ‘Universal Mind’ used?
Universal Mind is used:
- by Levi-Strauss
- to describe Homo Faber = bricoleur or handy-man
- The result of Levi-Strauss’s excessive research and theory was to depict man as Homo Faber (tool-maker), the famous bricoleur or handy-man. Variation on this common theme, rather than innovation, grounded Levi-Strauss’s formulation of culture. The prime mover for Levi-Strauss was not so much the functionality of society, but rather the workings of the Universal Mind over which individual subjects had no control.*
What are the problems/limitations of Structural Analysis?
- Rigidity
- Historicism
- Claude Levi-Strauss was an unashamed ‘armchair anthropologist’.
- In the 1970s, Structuralism was criticised for its rigidity and historicism (lack of concern for history).*
What is ‘Universal Mind’ often compared to?
The psychological theories of Carl Jung.
Where was ‘Universal Mind’ first cited?
Levi-Strauss
1968
Language and the Analysis of Social Laws
What is Langue vs Parole?
Langue vs Parole is:
- Based on Saussure’s distinction
- Structure (langue) & meaning (parole) in culture
- Sound = signifier (langue) vs Idea = signified (parole)
- “Deep Grammar” causes people to operate unconsciously
- Levi-Strauss applied Saussure’s distinction between langue (language) and parole (speech) to the study of cultures, suggesting that a similar distinction could be made between structure and meaning in culture. The sound is the signifier (langue), the idea is the signified (parole).*
- Levi-Strauss had been particularly influenced by the Cours de Linguistique (1917) given by Ferdinand de Saussure in Geneva.*
How or why is Langue vs Parole used?
Langue vs Parole is used:
- by Levi-Strauss
- to develop theories on the fundamental structures of human mind
- Levi-Strauss produced more linguistically focused writings in which he applied Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole in his search for the fundamental structures of the human mind, arguing that the structures that form the “deep grammar” of society originate in the mind and operate in people unconsciously.*
Where was ‘Langue vs Parole’ (by Levi-Strauss) first cited?
Levi-Strauss
1968
Language and the Analysis of Social Laws
What is ‘Langue vs Parole’ often compared to?
The concept of Collective Consciousness by Durkheim (Functionalism).
What is Mytheme?
Mytheme is:
- Bundles of relations which produce meaning
- Analysis of relationship between elements
- Based on phoneme-logical approach
- Opposite, relative and negative entities
- Mythemes consist of bundles of relations which produce meaning. Levi-Strauss analyses the relationship between elements (based on phoneme-logicial approach - analysing distinct units of sound) that he calls “mythemes.”*
How or why is Mytheme used?
Mytheme is used:
- by Levi-Strauss
- to study relationships between mythemes
- defined only in opposition to another mytheme
- Levi-Strauss does not study the individual mythemes, but the relationships between them, and by studying the interplay of binary oppositions and transformation rules he concludes that mythemes are oppositive, relative and negative entities. A mytheme is defined only in opposition to another mytheme.*
Where was ‘Mytheme’ first cited?
Levi-Strauss
1955
The Structural Study of Myth
