The field of anthropology experienced several changes that shaped its research approach. Such changes occur whenever a prominent figure in the field of anthropology proposes a new way of looking at the world and its past. One of the most significant theories of the modern era was Claude Levi-Strauss. His theories became some of the most important for the concept of structural anthropology and structuralism as a whole. This paper will provide his brief biography, the historical context in which his theories were created, his educational background, influences, contemporaries, and how his theory is applied in the field of anthropology.
Biography
Claud Levi-Strauss was born in Brussels, Belgium on November 28, 1908. His early life was spent in Paris. When the First World War began, he moved to his grandfather on his mother’s side. Levi-Strauss’s grandfather was a rabbi of a synagogue in Versailles. After the war, he began to study law at the Sorbonne University but changed his focus to philosophy instead. In the first half of the 1930s, he worked as a teacher.
However, an opportunity to join a cultural mission to Brazil presented itself, and Levi-Strauss decided to go with it. During the mission, he was performing the duties of a sociology professor. He lived there until 1939. This time was very formative for his understanding of ethnography due to the expeditions that he was a part of. He studied various tribal societies that were present in the region (Kurzweil, 2017).
After returning home to Paris, he assisted the war effort on the Maginot Line. However, the county soon capitulated, which left him in a dangerous position due to his ethnic background. His citizenship was taken away by the Vichy government, but he stayed in the country for some time and assisted the French resistance. He eventually escaped the country and gained employment at the New York New School for Social Research. While living in New York, he established Ecole Libre des Hautes Etudes, a collective of academics that were exiled from France during the occupation. This time in his life also contributed greatly to his outlook on anthropology.
He began to shape his theory of structural anthropology. Since the 1940s, he began publishing books where he described a new approach to anthropology based on the idea of kinship and structure. His publications were met with a very positive response (Pace, 2015). He began to be highly regarded in the professional circles which in 1959 earned him a position as a professor of social anthropology at the College de France. He continued his work late into his life until passing away in 2009 at the age of 100 (Kurzweil, 2017).
Historical Context
He began to develop his theories of structural anthropology during a difficult time in his life. The Second World War caused Levi-Strauss to leave his home country, which put him in touch with some of the most prominent academics of the era. At the time, families were seen as self-contained units, with their other relatives being considered less relevant for analysis. However, Levi-Strauss found this to be false and presented his point of view through the creation of structured anthropology (Badcock, 2014).
Influences
Levi-Strauss based his initial writing on the structural linguistics theory by Ferdinand de Saussure. He translated them to the field of anthropology by proposing that the identities of families are defined by the relations of their members. Specifically, he included the relationships that extended family has with the members of a core unit (Shaul, 2017). Levi-Strauss was also fascinated by mythology and how it changes throughout its evolutionary process as well as regional differences between various retellings of myths that are essentially the same.
One of his most celebrated works is titled “Mythologiques,” and it examines the changes that a myth that originated in South America experiences in various cultures and countries, with the endpoint being the Arctic Circle. The book is extremely detailed and reflects the enthusiasm of the author towards the subject of mythology, as well as the cultural development of different societies. However, it would not be possible without the inspiration from Saussure, which allowed him to understand the complex interconnections between cultures and myths (Lau, 2016).
Contemporaries
During his life, Levi-Strauss was surrounded by talented people in various fields of social science. He was friends with one of the pioneers of modern anthropology Franz Uri Boas. Boas reportedly died in the arms of Levi-Strauss in 1942. This event was mourned by thousands, because of the powerful effect that his techniques had on the field of anthropology (Garlitz, 2017). Other contemporaries included the linguist theorist Roman Osipovich Jakobson, French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, and an art historian named Henri Focillon. Jakobson helped him form his initial ideas into more concrete ones.
Their debates shaped his later works and allowed them to be more comprehensive, with better arguments, and more consistent structure (Shapiro, 2018). Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown’s concept of kinship was also considered and subverted by Levi-Strauss in the majority of his creations.
Application of Theory
The applications for structural anthropology are common and may serve in a variety of contexts. While his early works were dedicated to families and their analysis, Levi-Strauss was able to utilize the same principles to find the evolutionary path of myths. Such a wide variety of applications is expected due to the flexibility of the structural anthropological method of analysis. The structuralism movement in anthropology became very powerful due to the high esteem of Levi-Strauss’ books on this topic, as well as the works of this contemporaries. The idea behind them is simple, but the change that it brought to modern anthropology is immense. He lived for a very long time, which allowed him to progressively revise and improve his earlier arguments and ideas. Therefore, they are still often seen as valid and relevant to the modern era (Kurzweil, 2017).
Conclusion
The work of Levi-Strauss in the field of anthropology was fundamental to the modern understanding of it. The simple, yet extremely effective approach to analysis that he devised is still used today. His early life included a lot of tragedy, but he found solace in academic thought and research. Levi-Strauss is still considered to be one of the most influential and respected people in the field of anthropology, and this status is completely justified. By looking at the world from a more complex but structurally consistent point of view, people can find the unusual connections between cultures, nations, and individuals. This approach could be used to show that despite their differences, all people have several shared values and beliefs.
References
Badcock, C. R. (2014). Levi-Strauss (RLE Social Theory): Structuralism and sociological theory. Hoboken, NJ: Routledge.
Garlitz, D. (2017). Lévi-Strauss, Claude. In B. S. Turner (Ed.), The Wiley-Blackwell encyclopedia of social theory (pp. 1–3). Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Kurzweil, E. (1980). The age of structuralism: Lévi-Strauss to Foucault. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Lau, K.-Y. (2016). Phenomenology and intercultural understanding. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
Pace, D. (2015). Claude Lévi-Strauss: The bearer of ashes. London, UK: Routledge.
Shapiro, M. (2018). Roman Jakobson in retrospect. Chinese Semiotic Studies, 14(1).
Shaul, D. (2017). With ‘the delicacy of a bear’: Lévi-Strauss, Derrida, and the logic of anthropology. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 18(1), 18–40.