Clear all
Work #293 · Mid (the methodological consolidation)

Structural Anthropology

Claude Lévi-Strauss
1958 · French
Collection of essays · French structural anthropology

The collection that established structural anthropology — Lévi-Strauss's 1958 systematic methodological statement

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Structural Anthropology (Mid (the methodological consolidation))
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Multiple
Observer · Space Instance Multiple
Observer · Knowledge Extent Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency None
Observer · Moral Authority Reason
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Non-conserved
Information · Granularity Discrete

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Structural Anthropology

Synchronic-structural time of the analyses.

Space

Structural Anthropology

The space of cultural diversity organised by underlying structural patterns.

Matter

Structural Anthropology

Material culture and observable cultural practice as the substrate of structural analysis.

Observer

Structural Anthropology

The structural anthropologist as systematic observer; the cultures studied as systems of structural relations.

Energy

Structural Anthropology

The formal energies of structural transformation across cultures.

Information

Structural Anthropology

The discrete structural patterns preserved across cultural variations.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Structural Anthropology

Structural Anthropology has been continuously critiqued and modified — post-structuralist critique (Derrida, Foucault), post-colonial critique (the colonial-anthropological gaze), practice-theory critique (Pierre Bourdieu). The methodological framework has been substantially rehabilitated by contemporary cognitive anthropology and computational approaches to kinship.