CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS: BIOGRAPHY, THEORY, THOUGHT, WORKS, PHRASES - BIOGRAPHIES - 2024

Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009) was a renowned anthropologist of French nationality, who in his time generated great controversy as a result of his work, since many critics denounced not understanding what the author was exposing.

Today, the principles of Lévi-Strauss structuralism have been understood and many specialists on the subject indicate that, as a result of his work, anthropology was transformed. Lévi-Strauss's work even extended to other disciplines besides anthropology, such as psychology and philosophy.

Claude Lévi-Strauss. Author: UNESCO / Michel Ravassard. Via Wikimedia Commons.

However, Lévi-Strauss did not want to do philosophy. He was a man of scientific method who on many occasions denied the philosophers. However, his works go beyond the positive sciences; His theories are bold and steeped in worldview and human history.

The ideas and works of this author are documented in more than twelve books, hundreds of articles and public presentations. He was one of the most outstanding personalities in world anthropology during the 20th century.

Biography

Personal life and studies

Claude Lévi-Strauss was born on November 28, 1908 in the city of Brussels. His family was French with Jewish roots. In 1931, he studied philosophy in Paris to later obtain a doctorate in letters (1948).

Then he traveled to Brazil -between 1934 and 1938- and served as a professor at the University of Sao Paulo. In this country he traveled to the regions of Mato Grosso and the Amazon, where he carried out ethnographic work.

He returned to France during the World War and then in 1941 he traveled to the United States, where he lived until 1947. Later he returned to France to dedicate himself to research.

In 1950, he was selected as director at the Practical School of Higher Studies in Paris, dictating the subject on religions of peoples without writing. Then in 1959 he was a professor at the College de France, where he devoted himself to the chair of social anthropology.

During this time, the publication of his structural anthropology and his studies on savage thought and totemism determined the rise of structuralism. Claude Lévi-Strauss died at the age of 100, on October 31, 2009.

Theory and thought

- The beginning of structuralism

Lévi-Strauss is considered the father of structuralism. However, despite being the introducer of the method in ethnology, he rightly denied that paternity; it indicated that structuralism began with Goethe and Humboldt. He declared that his contribution consisted in having extended the structural analysis to extralinguistic areas.

Lévi-Strauss's main academic concern was humanity from an ethnographic perspective. It is necessary to indicate that his precepts had important bases in psychoanalysis, geology and Marxism, whose influences were determining in the development of his ideas.

Two lines stand out in his explorations: the first tries to establish a scientific vision for the studies of man from the ethnographic point of view; the second seeks to know the human spirit.

- The Lévi-Strauss method

Lévi-Strauss established the structural method rigorously. He divided it into several successive and staggered stages ranging from empirical data to higher theoretical forms.

Stages of the structural method

The method begins with a deep description of all phenomena and their interrelationships with the whole; that is, a survey of information as complete as possible. This had to be done in an objective way.

Then, through a systematized treatment of the data, the relationships and correlations were sought. Later schemes were devised to explain the observed data. This phase ended with the formulation of the hypothesis.

The third stage is experimentation, based on the models built through the hypothesis. Lévi-Strauss indicated that the best hypothesis is the one that, in a simple way, explains all the observed phenomena.

The last stage is the formulation of the theoretical models that explain or express a law which is invariable.

As can be seen, the work of Lévi-Strauss organized a meticulous plan in order to arrive at a structural explanation of culture and man. It is necessary to indicate that the proposed structural model accepts operational interpretations, never ontological ones.

- The structure according to Lévi-Strauss

The structure was conceived by Lévi-Strauss as a theoretical pattern that reconstructs or couples constant elements, but which in turn originate variations, discrepancies, diversity and similarities in different cultures.

The constant elements were: the brain structure, the behavior of the spirit of humanity, the different languages, the ties of kinship, among others. Lévi-Strauss indicated that these elements are universal in scope and have existed throughout the history of mankind.

- Analysis carried out by Lévi-Strauss

Through the application of the structural method, Lévi-Strauss explained the prohibition of incest and marriage exchanges in different cultures. He also studied dualistic social organizations and totemism.

In addition, he did work on rites, magic and shamanism. All these works were carried out by applying the structural method in ethnology.

He tried to relate the different structures studied in order to find a general theory for humanity, which could be applied in its entirety to society. This theory was based on communication and linguistics.

From the ideas and works of Lévi-Strauss the search for a new human being can be deduced, open to all the cultural forms deployed throughout the world. This new conception, according to the anthropologist, would eliminate the abuses that societies have suffered.

- Lévi-Strauss and the human spirit

The idea of ​​a last structure that encompasses all structures appears as an ordering thought of all his research. It is at this point that Lévi-Strauss points to the human spirit, based on the logical structure of the mind.

It indicated that the characteristics of cultures, the particularities that are shared and those considered as universal, can be taken to a logical element that originates them and gives knowledge of them.

This is how Lévi-Strauss showed the existence of a common base, an invariant nature in the human being, which existed beyond the differences and similarities observed. He considered the human spirit as this universal base.

In this way, Lévi-Strauss shows himself as a philosopher when trying to establish the existence of a basic and logical thinking that resides in the human spirit, specifically in the unconscious. Furthermore, it shows that the nature of this basic human structure is binary and moves between opposite concepts.

- The binary classification

Lévi-Strauss indicated that, in systems, the most basic relationships are structured by a binary classification. He showed that societies in their most elementary forms are divided into unmarried and analogous individuals who can marry.

In this way, he determined that the human being orders the images taken of the world that exists around him in a succession of binary representations, which are then associated with other paired entities. In this way, symbols are established for relationships between individuals in societies.

This binary conception determined the social discrepancies between men and women, or between clans. She proposed that the initial deductions originate new premises, determining epics, moral treatises and different interpretations.

- The vision of humanity

Lévi-Strauss came to the conviction that humanity is basically adequate to the environment where it lives, but is led by civilization to affect the environment, destroying and altering cultural changes.

This approach grew out of his fond experiences in Brazil and how catastrophic World War II became for humanity. In contrast, he believed that humanity everywhere thought in the same way, albeit about different things.

Sketch by Claude Lévi-Strauss (2007). Author: Edward Drantler. Via Wikimedia Commons

More important works

Lévi-Strauss knew the limitations of his proposals and always indicated that he was pleased only that his theories helped to take the social sciences a step further. He showed satisfaction when, thanks to his proposals, he perceived that the rules of marriage, social organization, or myth were better understood than before.

Furthermore, he enjoyed the approach to a greater understanding of the human spirit, without demanding that definitive answers be obtained about its ultimate nature.

His publications cover a great diversity of topics, ranging from the first analyzes of the societies studied by anthropologists to current civilizations. Among the most important works published by Lévi-Strauss the following can be indicated:

-The family and social life of the Nambikwara Indians (1948).

-The elementary structures of kinship (1949).

-Totemism today (1962).

-The wild thought (1962).

-Mythological I: The raw and the cooked (1964).

-Mythological II: From honey to ashes (1967).

-Mythological III: The origin of table manners (1968).

-Mythological IV: The Naked Man (1971).

-The jealous potter (1985).

-History of Lince (1991).

Phrases

"By proposing the study of man, I free myself from doubt, since I consider in it the differences and changes that have a meaning for all men, except those that are exclusive to a single civilization" (1955).

"I was born and raised in a medium that was interested not only in painting, but also in music and poetry" (1970).

"To demand that what can be valid for us be valid for everyone always seems unjustified to me, and indicates a certain form of obscurantism" (1973).

"When one thinks that he is expressing himself spontaneously, making an original work, he replicates other past or present creators, current or virtual" (1979).

"Whether it is known or ignored, he never leaves alone on the path of creation" (1979).

References

1. Gómez P. Claude Lévi-Strauss. Life, work and legacy of a centennial anthropologist. Retrieved on January 8, 2020 from: gazeta-antropologia.
2. Ruiza, M., Fernández, T., Tamaro, E. (2004). Biography of Claude Lévi-Strauss. Retrieved on January 8, 2020 from: biografiasyvidas.com
3. Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009). Leading anthropologist of his generation. Retrieved on January 9, 2020 from: nature.com
4. Moragón, L. (2007). Structuralism and Poststructuralism in Archeology. Retrieved on January 9, 2020 from: pendingdemigracion.ucm.es
5. Müller-Wille S. (2010). Claude Lévi-Strauss on Race, History, and Genetics. Retrieved on January 7, 2020 from: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
6. Downes P. (2003). Cross-cultural structures of concentric and diametric dualism in Lévi-Strauss' structural anthropology: structures of relation underlying the self and ego relation ?. Retrieved on January 8, 2020 from: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov