Levi-strauss, Claude

Claude Lévi-Strauss’s theories have been fundamental to the renewal of modern anthropology, in particular the study of kinship systems, totemism, classification, and mythology. Throughout his works, he has sought to understand the functioning of so-called “primitive” modes of thought. In opposition to the theories formulated by influential predecessors such as Lucien LévyBruhl, he has revealed that these “primitive” modes of thought are neither radically different (prelogical, prerational) nor fundamentally more archaic than our own “civilized” ways of thinking. Indeed, Lévi-Strauss is careful to present these “primitive” modes of thought not so much as the attribute of so-called primitive societies, but as an aspect of the way in which all human beings think. Lévi-Strauss’s influence, however, extends beyond anthropology into philosophy, literary criticism, psychoanalysis, and other areas. The dissemination of his ideas, in particular about the representation of historical time and the relationship between primitive (“cold”) and Western (“hot”) societies, gave rise to a number of debates with French philosophers, among them Jean-Paul Sartre (the last chapter of LéviStrauss’s La Pensée sauvage [1962], entitled “Histoire et Dialectique,” contains a virulent attack on Sartre’s Critique de la raison dialectique), Paul Ricœur (see “Structure et herméneutique” in the special “pensée sauvage” issue of the journal Esprit published in November 1963), and Jacques Derrida (see, in particular, “La structure, le signe et le jeu dans le discours des sciences humaines” and “La Violence de la lettre: de Lévi-Strauss à Rousseau”). This dialogue (sometimes conflict) between anthropology and philosophy has played a major part in shaping contemporary French thought. In the area of literary criticism, it was arguably Lévi-Strauss’s influence on Roland Barthes, who in his early works used structuralist ideas to interpret literature, film, and fashion, that did the most for the constitution of a structuralist poetics. When, in 1964, Jacques Lacan gave his first seminar on “The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis” at the École normale supérieure, one of the first questions that he raised was whether Lèvi-Strauss’s notion of a pensèe sauvage could accommodate the unconscious as such (The Four Fundamental Concepts of PsychoAnalysis, 13). Lévi-Strauss himself borrowed and used concepts from many other disciplines (linguistics, mathematics, musicology, biology, and philosophy) and, in this respect, played a key role in demonstrating the value of the kind of interdisciplinary connections