Claude Lévi-Strauss

interaction in small groups, especially classrooms and work groups (see sociometry). In anthropology, the foundation for social network theory is the theoretical and ethnographic work of Bronislaw Malinowski,[12] Alfred Radcliffe-Brown,[13][14] and Claude Lévi-Strauss.[15] A group of social anthropologists associated with Max Gluckman and the Manchester School, including John A. Barnes,[16] J. Clyde Mitchell and Elizabeth Bott Spillius,[17][18] often are credited with performing some of the…

Lacan from symbolism and Phallus-centric ideas to the psychology of women and femininity Freud had spent many years writing his first psychoanalytic publication, The Interpretation of Dream (1900), in which he advanced the principals of his new Doctrine (Kurzweil:13). He considered the essence of femininity in Oedipus Complex; so, after he had become convinced that the Oedipus myth is universal and that the boy’s first desires are for his mother. Based on this, he could also expect that the…

The Arthurian Legend is a collection of various stories which revolve around King Arthur, one of the legendary kings of Britain. These stories vary in their versions, interpretations, and spelling of names but their essences remain the same. They regale us with tales of the time prior to King Arthur’s conception to his rise to kinghood, tales of his adventures with his Knights of the Round Table, tales of the adulterous romance that occurred between his queen, Guinevere, and his knight and…

In the 1960s, a man by the name of Claude Levi-Strauss suggested that humans have a natural notion of “raw and cooked” meaning that humans naturally categorize everything in nature as clean or unclean. The People of Ancient Greece possessed this typical human habit. When looking specifically at the people of Sparta and the people of Athens, this habit is very apparent. Each city-state thought the other was unclean because they were so different despite both being Greek. Although Athens and…

It is based on the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure, which hold that language is a self-contained system of signs, and the cultural theories of Claude Lévi-Strauss, which hold that cultures, like languages, can be viewed as systems of signs and analyzed in terms of the structural relations among their elements. Central to structuralism is the notion that binary oppositions (e.g., male/female, public/private…

Fitchen talks about malnutrition in the United States, a country, which most people expect that it feeds its citizens well. She elaborates the cultural values and meanings that are attached to the opposition rich-poor on the image of a poor person buying a steak with a food stamp. She shows that domestic hunger often goes unnoticed, because those people who are poor enough to qualify for government food stamps, may be seen in grocery stores, purchasing not only basic food stuffs, but also…

History and Language: A Holistic View Humanity is such a simple word, yet is by simple nature excruciatingly complex. The variables and mechanisms that fuse themselves together are so broad and encompassing that it is not so surprising that looking at the whole is nigh on impossible for one person to achieve. Just as a single person is a blend of ideas, ideals, and circumstances, so too is the overall essence of what makes a human, human. Anthropologists have dedicated their lives to the attempt…

Graeber introduces us to a novel theory about the development of human relationships, money, commerce, and markets. The author himself has direct experience in Anthropology, although limited in comparison to other great ones in the field such as Claude Lévi-Strauss, he did study tribes in Madagascar and had other relevant first-hand encounters with the science. By making use of his past mentioned knowledge, but also by drawing parallel ideas and arguments encompassing the fields of Psychology,…

Part A: The Palace of Knossos is the most complex structure existing from the ancient Minoan Civilization on the island of Crete. It was built in the Minoan political center of Knossos by King Minos around 1900 BC. The palace is an extremely intricate building standing five stories with large, beautiful paintings on its walls known as frescos; it even had indoor plumbing. It is apparent that only the most important people in Minoan society lived in the palace because of its grandeur and beauty…

Lévi-Strauss showed that patterns we can observe in one level are invariably linked to and determined by similar patterns in other levels”. (Clark…