Structural Integrity

I missed the death of Claude Levi-Strauss last week. Of course, I was also surprised to discover he was still alive.

I studied Anthropology at the University of Michigan--one of the top anthro departments in the world--and, I have to admit, though Levi-Strauss was one of the biggest names in the field, neither I nor most of my professors were that interested in his work.

Levi-Strauss was the main proponent of structural anthropology (structuralism--which he didn't originate--as applied to his field), which looks at the meaning of a culture through certain basic practices, searching for underlying patterns of human activity. (One professor I had objected to this, saying what's interesting about anthropology is it can show you how everyone's different, not how everyone's the same.) Levi-Strauss noted opposing dualites, such as the sacred and profane, or, as in the title of his famous work, The Raw And The Cooked. (I'm greatly simplifying him, of course--so much so some would say I'm getting him wrong.)

Even if he got his facts right (which has been questioned), the problem with his work was that it looked at cultures, both intra and inter, through a questionable lens, which led to simplistic judgments that seemed more literary than world-based. (A common problem among French intellectuals?) It seemed to me he missed the trees for the symbolic forest.

But even for those in opposition, he was a giant in his field who did work that made you look at the commonplace and realize something bigger was going on.