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Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 22:1/2 (1995) ► pp.217–234

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The Structuralism of Claude Lévi-Strauss

 | University of Western Ontario
Published online: 1 January 1995
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.22.1-2.09dar
Summary
Despite the importance of Lévi-Strauss’s structuralism to a range of disciplines, little historiographic attention has been given to the sources of his thought about universals of human cognition. This paper examines his roots in Durkheimian sociology and his borrowings from Boasian anthropology and Prague School structuralism (documenting his rather startling lack of engagement with language as such). Biography, public pronouncements of Lévi-Strauss, and ongoing scholarly commentary are used to broaden the understanding of structuralism as an international tradition transcending the boundaries of linguistics as a discipline.
Résumé
Malgré l’importance accordée au structuralisme de Lévi-Strauss dans toute une gamme de disciplines, peu se sont intéréssés à l’historiographie des sources de la pensée de Lévi-Strauss relative aux universaux des connaissances humaines. Le présent article examine les origines de cette pensée dans la sociologie de Durkheim ainsi que ses emprunts à l’anthropologie de Boas et au structuralisme du Cercle linguistique de Prague (en soulignant notamment le manque d’intérêt qu’il porte à la langue propre). A partir de biographies, de déclarations publiques de Lévi-Strauss, et d’études savantes en cours, on conçoit le structuralisme davantage comme une tradition internationale qui dépasse les limites de la linguistique en tant que discipline.
Zusammenfassung
Wenig historiographisches Interesse ist bisher den Ursprüngen von Lévi-Strauss’ Strukturalismus gezollt worden, obschon seine Ideen zu den Universalien menschlichen Erkenntnisvermögens für eine Anzahl von Disziplinen bedeutsam geworden sind. Der vorliegende Beitrag sucht die Wurzeln seines Denkens in der Soziologie Durkheims auf, verzeichnet aber ebenso seine Anleihen bei der Anthropologie Franz Boas’ und dem Strukturalismus des Prager Linguistenkreises (wobei gleichzeitig Lévi-Strauss’ überraschendes Desinteresse an spezifisch sprachlichen Fragen dokumentiert wird). Auf der Grundlage von Biographie, öffentlichen Stellungnahmen und der vorhandenen Literatur zu Lévi-Strauss wird hier der Versuch gemacht, das Verständnis des Bergriffs ‘Strukturalismus’ zu erweitern und als eine internationale Geistesbewegung zu deuten, die weit über die Grenzen der Sprachwissenschaft hinausgeht.
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Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Stanlaw, James
2020. Structuralism. In The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Throop, C. Jason
2003. Minding experience: An exploration of the concept of “experience” in the early French anthropology of Durkheim, Lévy‐Bruhl, and Lévi‐Strauss. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 39:4 ► pp. 365 ff. DOI logo

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