STRUCTURALISM

Structuralism was an intellectual movement which began in linguistics and embraces

areas as diverse as anthropology, philosophy and literary criticism. In linguistics,
structuralism is associated with the pioneering works of SAUSSURE (1916) and Jakobson,
and Saussure is regarded as the leader of a revolution in linguistics which established
the central concern of the discipline as the study of language as a system of signs and
shifted the focus from the study of 'surface structures' to that of DEEP STRUCTURES or
underlying structural principles.

In anthropology structuralism was pioneered by LEVI-STRAUSS (1963) the linguistic

model has been taken as a basis for the understanding of human culture and the human
mind.

Levi-Strauss proposes that culture is to be understood as a surface phenomenon which

reveals the universal human tendency to order and classify perceived phenomena and
experience. While the surface phenomena vary, the underlying ordering principles are
the same. From the analysis of kinship and marriage systems in his early works, Levi
Strauss has increasingly shifted towards the analysis of MYTH and SYMBOLISM as
domains in which the free operation of the mind is more easily examined.

As is the case also in structural linguistics, the principle of BINARY OPPOSITIONS is of

great importance in structural anthropology.It is argued that just as sound systems
function in terms of systems of contrasts, so too do mental and cultural systems. No
term is therefore to be understood in isolation, but instead as part of a contrasting
system built up from elementary or binary oppositions.

Typical binary oppositions regarded by Levi-Strauss as universal elements in the

cultural vocabulary include right-left, raw-cooked, nature-culture, centre-periphery,
and man-woman. He makes no radical distinction between behavioural systems
(social institutions, ritual) and ideational ones (myth, symbolism). According to his
theory, each may be a manner of commenting upon or resolving contradictions inherent
in the other.

Structuralism has been immensely influential, especially in the analysis of kinship and
marriage and that of myth and symbolism, which as we have seen have been the main
areas of analysis pioneered by Levi-Strauss.
However we have not seen the general application of structuralist principles in
other fields (for example in economic or political anthropology) which would be
necessary in order to substantiate the claim that structuralism constitutes a general
science of communication and sociocultural behaviour. Criticisms of structuralist theory
have focused on its static and essentially ahistorical nature, suggesting the need to
modify the concept of structure to take into account not only the active role of the
individual in creating sociocultural systems, but also the historical and dynamic nature of
such systems.

Many anthropologists accordingly incorporate elements of structuralist methodology for

the study of the underlying logic of communicative or symbol systems, without
necessarily embracing all of the implications of the Levi-Straussian conception
of structure. At the same time, it is important to recognize that many of the
criticisms of Levi-Strauss's theories are anticipated or dealt with in his own works,
though ultimately without an overall synthesis which confronts all their contradictions
and implications.

Structuralism was predominantly influenced by Gestalt psychology. Gestalt psychology

maintained that all human conscious experience is patterned. Gestalt psychology is a
school of thought that looks at the human mind and behaviour as a whole. When trying
to make sense of the world around us, Gestalt psychology suggests that we do not
simply focus on every small component.

Instead, our minds tend to perceive objects as part of a greater whole and as elements of
more complex systems. This school of psychology played a major role in the modern
development of the study of human sensation and perception.

Structuralism developed as a theoretical framework in linguistics by Ferdinand de

Saussure in the 1920s and 1930s. De Saussure proposed that languages were constructed of
hidden rules that practitioners know but are unable to articulate. In other words, though
we may all speak the same language, we are not fully able to articulate the grammatical
rules of the language. However, we understand the rules and hence are able to
understand and speak the language.
 Some Key Terms

1. Gestalt Psychology : School of psychology founded in the 20th century that

provided the foundation for the modern study of perception. Gestalt theory
emphasises that the whole of anything is greater than its parts. That is, the
attributes of the whole are not deducible from analysis of the parts in isolation. The
word Gestalt is used in modern German to mean the way a thing has been “placed,”
or “put together.” There is no exact equivalent in English. “Form” and “shape” are
the usual translations; in psychology the word is often interpreted as “pattern” or
“configuration.”Gestalt psychology was in part an attempt to add a humanistic
dimension to what was considered a sterile approach to the scientific study of
mental life. Gestalt psychology further sought to encompass the qualities of form,
meaning, and value that prevailing psychologists had either ignored or presumed to
fall outside the boundaries of science.

2. Phenomenology: A philosophical movement which has been influential in social

sciences and in anthropology, particularly in the anthropology of systems of
CLASSIFICATION and KNOWLEDGE. It is concerned with the study of
consciousness and the manner in which people apprehend the world and the objects
within it. The aim of phenomenology is thus to describe conceptual structures and
processes. A central notion is that of 'intentionality'. This refers to the fact that an
object and the consciousness which apprehends it are not to be treated as two
separable entities but as a single phenomenon. Thus the object in itself
does not exist apart from in the manner in which it is constituted by consciousness.

3. Hermeneutics : The original meaning of this term is the interpretation of sacred

texts. It has been extended within philosophy and the social sciences to mean the
interpretation of or the search for meaning in texts, in human existence, in society,
and so on. The philosopher Martin Heidegger employed the term to mean the
understanding of the world as the object of human thought and action.
Hans-Georg Gadamer (1979) proposed hermeneutics as a method for the social
sciences, in opposition to scientism.
 LEVI STRAUSS’ STRUCTURALISM

Claude Lévi-Strauss

He was a French social anthropologist, Born in Brussels, Belgium in 1908 . He is often

known as the “father of modern anthropology”. Levi- Strauss became famous in social
anthropology by implementing the methods of structuralist analysis. He conducted field
research among the Indians of Brazil. He was introduced to Saussure, the legendary Swiss
linguist and realised the importance of semiology for cultural analysis.

His important publications include 'The Elementary Structures of Kinship' (1949),

'Tristes Tropiques' (1955), 'Structural Anthropology' (1958), 'The Savage Mind'
(1962), 'Mythologiques' (4 volumes; 1964-72) and 'The Raw and the Cooked'(1970).

Claude Levi-Strauss (1908 – 2009) is widely regarded as the father of structural

anthropology. In the 1940s, he proposed that the proper focus of anthropological
investigations is on the underlying patterns of human thought that produce the cultural
categories that organise worldviews hitherto studied.

He believed these processes did not determine culture, but instead, operated within
culture. His work was heavily influenced by Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss as well as
the Prague School of structural linguistics (organised in 1926) which include Roman
Jakobson (1896 – 1982), and Nikolai Troubetzkoy (1890 – 1938). From the latter, he
derived the concept of binary contrasts, later referred to in his work as binary
oppositions, which became fundamental in his theory.

In 1972, his book Structuralism and Ecology detailed the tenets of what would become
structural anthropology. In it, he proposed that culture, like language, is composed of
hidden rules that govern the behaviour of its practitioners. What makes cultures unique
and different from one another are the hidden rules participants understand but are
unable to articulate; thus, the goal of structural anthropology is to identify these rules.
Levi-Strauss proposed a methodological means of discovering these rules—through the
identification of binary oppositions. The structuralist paradigm in anthropology suggests
that the structure of human thought processes is the same in all cultures, and that these
mental processes exist in the form of binary oppositions (Winthrop 1991).

Some of these oppositions include hot-cold, male-female, culture-nature, and

raw-cooked. Structuralists argue that binary oppositions are reflected in various cultural
institutions. Anthropologists may discover underlying thought processes by examining
such things as kinship, myth, and language. It is proposed, then, that a hidden reality exists
beneath all cultural expressions. Structuralists aim to understand the underlying meaning
involved in human thought as expressed in cultural expressions.

Further, the theoretical approach offered by structuralism emphasises that elements of

culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to the entire system. This
notion, that the whole is greater than the parts, draws upon the Gestalt school of
psychology.

Essentially, elements of culture are not explanatory in and of themselves, but rather form
part of a meaningful system. As an analytical model, structuralism assumes the
universality of human thought processes in an effort to explain the “deep structure” or
underlying meaning existing in cultural phenomena. Structuralism is a set of principles for
studying the mental superstructure (Harris ,1979).

Levi Strauss is of opinion that:

i) Language and culture are homologous
ii) Language and culture are analogous
iii) Language and culture are structural

He said that languages, kinship, marriage and other manifestations of culture are
communication systems. In the 1940s he proposed that proper focus of anthropological
investigation was on underlying patterns of human thought that produce cultural
categories. He believed these processes were not deterministic of culture but instead
operated within culture. He gave the concept of ‘BINARY OPPOSITION’ which is
fundamental to this theory.

In this definition, there are 3 fundamental properties of human mind:

• People follow rules
• Reciprocity is the simplest way to create social relationships
• A gift binds both giver and recipient in a continuous social relationship.
Such social structures, according to Levi Strauss, mirror cognitive structures, the way in
which mankind thinks and understands.

He proposed that culture, like language, is composed of hidden rules that govern the
behaviour of its practitioners. What made culture unique and different from one another
are the hidden rules participants understood but are unable to articulate. Thus, the goal
of structural anthropology is to identify these rules. Levi Strauss proposed a
methodological means of discovering these rules through the identification of binary
opposition.

The structuralist paradigm in anthropology suggests that the structure of the human
thought process is the same in all cultures, and that these mental processes exist in the
form of binary opposition. Some of these opposition include hot cold, male-female,
culture-nature and raw-cooked. Structuralists argue that binary opposition is reflected in
various cultural institutions – Kinship, art, religion, ritual.

Binary opposites differ from society to society and are defined in a particular way that is
logical to its members for example shoes are “good” when you wear them outside but
“bad” if you put them on the table; role of anthropologist is to understand these rules to
interpret the culture.

LEVI STRAUSS AND KINSHIP SYSTEMS

In explanation of moiety systems – Levi Strauss says that moiety systems reflect the
human mind’s predisposition to think in terms of binary opposition. Clearly, the moiety
system involves binary opposition, you are born into one of 2 groups and you marry
someone in the other.
The problem with Levi Strauss’s explanation of moieties is that he is postulating a
constant (i.e. human mind’s supposed dualism) to account for a cultural feature that is
not universal. Moiety systems are found in only a relatively small number of societies.

He also analysed kinship terminology.He said that the elementary structure or unit of
kinship on which all systems are built is a set of 4 types of organically linked relations -
brother/ sister, husband/wife, father/ son, mother’s brother/ father’s sister.

In his book entitled “Elementary Structure of kinship”, Levi Strauss holds the view that
regarding incest taboo, it has been empirically established that it appears in every
society, though specific rules differ from society to society or culture to culture. Incest
taboo depends upon the property of human mind to think in opposites. The most
fundamental dichotomy to be recognized for man to become human and to develop
culture is that between self and others. Only when this distinction is made, a true
symbolic communication is possible.

According to him incest taboo is concerned with exchange of women. Among animals,
mating is random and promiscuous but incest taboo, by its very nature, dictates on
ordered exchange of women, and thus also institutes marriage rules.

Levi Strauss gave alliance theory in opposition to what is called descent theory, which
was put forth by British anthropologist (Radcliff Brown) and was the dominant theory in
kinship studies till then. The emphasis of descent theory was on the transmission of
property, office, ritual complex and rights and obligations across the generation (either
in father’s or mother’s line or both) which produces solidarity among the members of the
group related by the ties of consanguinity.

Lineage was seen as a corporate group, property holding and organising labour on the
lines of blood ties. In this set of ideas, marriage was secondary. Since one could not
marry one’s sister or daughter, because of the rules of incest taboo, one married from
another group. The primary objective of marriage was the procreation of the descent
group.

Levi Strauss’s alliance theory brought marriage to the centre of kinship studies. The
function of marriage was not just procreative. It was far from important, for it led to the
building of a string of relations between groups, respectively, called the wife givers and
wife takers. In this context the concept of incest taboo acquires a central place. It is the
‘pre-social’ social fact, if society is a social fact, which explains and account for a number
of other social facts, the fact that explains society, its emergence and functioning, is
incest taboo. For Levi Strauss it is the ‘cornerstone’ of human society.
The logical outcome of the prohibition of incest taboo is a system of exchange. It is not
only the negative aspect of the rule of incest taboo that needs to be recognized, as was
the case with descent theorists.

What was significant to Levi Strauss was the positive aspect- it is not only that I do not
marry my sister but I also give her in marriage to another man whose sister then I marry.
Sister exchange creates a ‘federation’ between exchanging groups. Societies are also
distinguished with respect to where there is ‘positive rule of marriage’ (the genealogical
specification of the relation to whom one should marry) and where such rule does not
exist.

LEVI STRAUSS ON TOTEMISM

Levi Strauss’ Totemism was published in French in 1962. Totemism refers to an
institution, mostly found among tribal community, where member of each of its clan
consider themselves as having descended from a plant, or animal or any other animate or
inanimate objects, for which they have a special feeling of veneration which leads to the
formation of a ritual relationship with that object.

The plant, animal or any other object is called ‘totem’, the word totem Levi Strauss says,
is taken from the Ojibwa, a tribe in North America. The members who share the same
totem constitute a ‘totemic group’. People have a special reverential attitude towards
their totem- they abstain from killing and/or eating it, or they may sacrifice and eat it on
ceremonial occasions; death of the totem may be ritually mourned; grand celebrations
take place in some societies for the multiplication of totems; and totems may be
approached for showering blessing and granting long term welfare. In other words, the
totem becomes the centre of beliefs and ritual action.

Totemism for Levi Strauss, is a mode of classification. Totemic classifications are

regarded as a ‘means of thinking’ governed by less rigid conditions than what we find in
the case of language. The functions that totemism fulfils are cognitive and intellectual:
‘totems are not good to eat, they are good to think’. The problem of totemism
disappears when we realise that all humans, at all points of time, are concerned with one
or other mode of classification and all classification operate using mechanisms of
differentiation, opposition and substitution.

Totem provide tribal communities with consciously held concepts which guide their
social actions. Food taboos, economic exchanges and kinship relations can be
conceptualised and organised using schemes which are comparable to the totemic
homology between natural species and social characteristics. Levi- Strauss also extends
this analysis to understand the relation between totemism and the caste system.
Totemism is a relationship between man and nature. Similarities and differences between
natural species are used to understand the similarities between human beings.

LEVI- STRAUSS VIEWS ON SAVAGE MIND

In his book entitled - ‘Savage Mind’ (1962) , Levi – Strauss tries to reach into the human
mind at the structural aspects of the unconscious.
Levi- Strauss holds the view that the human mind has a logical pattern of thought which
is found in all societies whether primitive or civilised. Primitive society engages in a high
level of reasoning different from but not necessarily inferior to that evolved in cultivated
systematic thought.

LEVI- STRAUSS’ STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF MYTH

Levi Strauss sums up his views on myth in series of propositions, which are as follows:
• If there is a meaning to be found in mythology it cannot reside in the isolated
elements, which enter into composition of myth, but only in the way those
elements are combined.
• Although myth belongs to the same category as language, being part of it,
language, in its mythic usages, has certain specific properties.
• These properties are more complex than those found in any other kind of
linguistics expression, i.e. they exist above linguistic level.
• Myth, like rest of language, is constituted out of units (mythemes)
• Mythic units are of a higher and more complex level than units of language.

In his article, “ The Structural Study of Myth”, Levi- Strauss took various versions of the
Oedipus myth as his example. Levi- Strauss opines that for studying myth we must have a
way of identifying units of myth i.e. mythemes. Thus, myth is not to be read as a story,
but must be broken down into its basic constituent element or mytheme and relation
between them must be examined. They represent the nature- culture dichotomy, hinging
on the incest taboo.

In his 4 volume book Mythologiques Levi Strauss studied several hundred myths across
various cultures. While they are often very different in content, Levi-Strauss endeavours
to demonstrate that their underlying structures display significant similarities.

Examining myth of different culture, Levi Strauss shows that one tale can be converted
into another through a series of simple operation like:

1. Converting positive elements of a myth into negative.

2. Reversing order of element.
3. Replacing male hero with female hero.
Through such operations dissimilar myths can be shown to be variation on a common
structure. E.g. He showed how the Cinderella story can be turned into an Ash boy story
by such steps.

Levi Strauss studies myth as a system of signs. For him myth accounts for the basic
conceptual categories of the human mind. These categories are made of contradictory
series of such binary opposition as raw and cooked, nature and culture, left and right etc.
Thus, a myth is a version of a theme which is represented in a specific combination of
categories.

EDMUND LEACH’s STRUCTURALISM

Leach is best known for his book ‘Political Systems of Highland Burma- a study in Kachin
Social Structure’. His key breakaway assertion was that the notion of a bounded “tribe”
with its own language and culture was useless for understanding the Burmese highlands.

The social landscape of the Kachin Hills comprised a shared system of social and political
relations, in which clans segmented and allied themselves to one another via marriage
and identity codes such as dialect and dress. This “system” was neither stable nor closed,
as people constantly entered, left, and shifted their position within it. The changes were
made possible by two ideal political models that actors had at their disposal:
(1) the hierarchical gumsa
(2) the anarchic egalitarian gumlao

In his book Political System of Highland Burma, he elaborates the notion of verbal
category. He examined the ways in which humans use categories to distinguish between
self and other, other and nature.

Leach in Burma identified two contrasting ideal types of political organisation

(gumlao/gumsa) which alternated historically between egalitarian and hierarchical
modes.
The social system in the Highland Burma area was such that it presented individuals with
inconsistencies in the schemes of values, by which they ordered their lives. They were
thus faced with alternative modes of actions. They consistently and consciously
attempted to manipulate their myths and marriage choices in a manner that would
increase their status.
Ambitious persons seeking political and economic advantage employed these models
strategically to justify their actions, and the accumulated weight of their decisions tilted
polities this way or that, shifting the whole structure of local society over time.
LEACH AND TRAFFIC SIGNALS
With traffic lights on both railways and roads, green means go and red means stop. If we
want to devise further signals with an intermediate meaning, we choose the colour
yellow. We do this because in the spectrum it lies midway between green and red. The
colorsystem and traffic system have the same structure, the one is a transformation of
the other.
Leach feels that mind dichotomizes the spectrum, makes a binary opposition out of a
continuum. It will use the extremes to build that opposition and logical centre to mediate
those extremes. Thus, the road and road signals system is a transformation of universal
colour code, which is an expression of structure of mind.

CRITICISM OF THE STRUCTURALIST THEORY

1. Static, ahistorical nature of theory. Mainly concerned with the structure of the
human psyche – it does not address the historical aspects/change in culture.

2. Theory does not account for human individuality. Human thought is not as
uniform and invariable as structuralism assumes it to be. Theory does not account
for individual human acts.

3. Lack of proof – The assumption that fundamental structures of human thought

are universal is just that – an assumption. It was never proved, paving the way for
other theories such as post-structuralism.

4. Theory does not account for the dynamic aspect of culture. It fails to explain
cultural variation i.e. why should structure be maintained only by this custom and
not by some other one i.e. technological, economic and ecological factors might
have to be considered to answer such questions.

Previous Year Questions From Unit 6(d) :

1. Explain the structural analysis of kinship as proposed by Levi-Strauss (2021)
2. How do concepts of binary opposite and exchange figure in Levi-Strauss’
structural analysis of kinship (2016)