Claude Levi-Strauss As A Social Scientist

Who is Claude Levi-Strauss? Claude Levi-Strauss is a French anthropologist who made a radical contribution in the social science world. His journey began November 28th, 1908 when he was born in Belgium to French parents. He grew up and attended school in France ("Claude Levi-Strauss"). During the course, of his life, he was involved in many remarkable…

After studying law and philosophy at the University of Paris from 1927 to 1932, he served as professor of sociology at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil while he embarked on a trip to study native tribal culture. Following the outburst of the second world war, he visited professors at the New School of Social Research in New York City where he published one of his most important works. October 30th, 2009 Claude Levi-Strauss died at the age of 100 ("Claude Levi-Strauss"). What did Claude Levi-Strauss contribute to social science?Claude Levi-Strauss is responsible for structuralism, symbolic/linguistics, and methodological social theories and the kinship studies. He created theories on a culture that changed modern anthropology.

First, one being Structuralism, which focuses on interpreting and analyzing human cognition, behavior, culture, and experiences. Structuralism suggests that there are universal patterns to human thought and culture; that there is a universal structure that basically underlies all human actions and social life (Briggs and Meyer). The idea that all cultures have homogenous, lurking structure, which helps to determine cultural beliefs and behaviors is described as complicated anthropological theory named structuralism ("Claude Levi-Strauss"). In order to dispute that each facet of a culture can be thought of as a relationship between binary opposition, Levi-Strauss used the structural ideas, which takes us to the next theory, the Binary opposite theory. The binary opposition is the means by which the units of language have value or meaning. Each and every unit is defined in reciprocal determinations with another term. There are certain words that we understand, not because of the meaning of that word but because we understand the difference between it and its opposite (Cummins). Finally, the alliance theory is the structural method of studying kinship relations. The Alliance theory is in contrast to the descent theory. During the time when the existence of social regulations and the ways in which members of diverse societies acted within a given scheme of ideas and divisions by British social anthropologists, Claude Levi-Strauss thought differently. His theory was motivated by the question of how arbitrary social categories had originated (MOLLYNEWMANA2MEDIA).

Moreover, he was also concerned with explaining their apparent compulsory quality or presence within the “natural order”, in societies. The speculation of a "marriage-alliance" points towards the required interdependence of numerous families and ancestries. Levi-Strauss described weddings as beings a way of communicating ("How did Levi-Strauss"). Thus, the Alliance theory tries to explain the basic questions about inter-individual relations, or what constitutes civilization. The alliance theory is intertwined with the incest taboo… Human groups are propelled towards exogamy by the ubiquitous prohibition of incest. Consequently, in a set society, fixed categories of kin are banned to intermarry. Hence, incest taboo is a negative prescription which means that without incest taboo men wouldn't be pushed by anything to go for women who are outside of the inner kinship circle or the other way around. An example or application of his theory: Structuralism is a belief that phenomena or human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. Those relations constitute a structure. It is greatly explained by analyzing the meaning of one of Claude Levi-Strauss quotes: “I, therefore, claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. ” - Claude Levi-Strauss. He doesn't necessarily focus on the ideas, myths, beliefs, and traditions that flow out from the mind of man, but rather, he proves that these ideas, myths, and traditions are naturally ingrained in the human mind and produce the same expressions across many ages and cultures. He illustrates the idea of how the various myths, traditions, and beliefs of man relate to the structure of the human mind.

Additionally, structuralism theory by Levi-Strauss can enable us to approach texts historically or trans-culturally in a disciplined way. Whenever we have to look more objectively, when we are transversing barriers of time, say, or of culture or interest, then the structural method, the search for principles of order, coherence and meaning, become dominant. Claude Levi-Strauss also said that all stories are propelled forward by a conflict that is caused by characters and events opposing each other. These binary opposites create a plot for a film, for example, a hero and a villain (good vs. evil) creates a storyline where the hero attempts to defeat the villain. Binary opposites have been said to create a ‘balance’ in the world.

Another example is the Opening chapter of Charles Dickens' novel, “A Tale of Two Cities”. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only”. This small extract has many ‘opposites’ such as: best and worst, wisdom and foolishness, light and darkness between others. Lastly, the … theory that can be explained with the following example. Man A Man A cannot marry inside his tribe (Tribe A) because incest here is taboo and the available women in Tribe A are all related by blood to Man A. Man A is thus constrained to look for a partner among the women in Tribe B, since the women there are not related to him by blood.

Upon the marriage of Man A and Woman B, the couple will be related and connected to both Tribe A and Tribe B, and more importantly, Tribe A and Tribe B will now have a connection, a bridge that connects the two tribes together. This is often a good reason and starts for them to be in alliance or partner groups that interact well in commerce and support each other not just in peacetime activity but also in war. Because of the partnership and the marriage to an individual from another family, kinship extends outside wider and is not constricted inside one family. The set of relatives becomes broader and wider, which guarantees the extension of the bloodline and the establishment of the network of individuals related to one another not just by blood or consanguinity but also because of the alliance forged by marriage. This concept has been strongly exercised in many countries, in many groups of people (tribes, kingdoms, clans) for a long period of time.

For example, kings sought to establish a strong political base and foundation for his bloodline by having his son or daughter married to the son or daughter of the king of another country or kingdom. It discourages incest because, in incest, people know that the bloodline is in danger of decreasing and consuming itself and can contribute to the weakening and decreasing kinship with the bigger, broader group of people. ("How did Levi-Strauss").