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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.

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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.