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The shoulders of our giants: Claude Lévi-Strauss and his legacy in current anthropology

albert.doja{at}ul.ie

English

In the course of anti-structuralist criticism, the main thrust of Lévi-Strauss’s epistemological approach seems to have been lost, to the collective detriment of social sciences and anthropology. By its monumental character, Lévi-Strauss’s work evokes that of the founders of anthropology, whereas, by the way in which it puts in relation the cultural and the mental, it anticipates a theoretical anthropology to come, with the ambition of providing a rigorous method that comes close to scientific knowledge. The fundamental point remains the emancipation of the structural approach from the linguistic model and its orientation toward a new context of science and technology, as exemplified in mathematics, information science, cybernetics and game theory, which made it possible for structural anthropology to innovatively account for the social systems and praxis of competitive and strategic practices.

French

Au cours du criticisme anti-structuraliste, l'objectif central de l'approche épistémologique de Lévi-Strauss semble avoir été perdue au détriment collectif de l'anthropologie et des sciences sociales. Par son caractère monumental, l'uvre de Lévi-Strauss évoque celle des fondateurs de l'anthropologie, alors que par la façon dont elle met en rapport le culturel et le mental, elle anticipe sur une anthropologie théorique à venir, avec l'ambition de fournir une méthode rigoureuse d'investigation anthropologique proche du savoir scientifique. Le point fondamental reste l'émancipation de l'approche structurale hors du modèle linguistique, vers un nouveau contexte scientifique et technologique illustré en mathématiques, sciences de l'information, cybernétique et théorie des jeux, qui permet à l'anthropologie structurale de rendre compte de façon innovatrice des systèmes sociaux comme de la praxis des pratiques compétitives et stratégiques.

Key Words: Anthropological theory • Claude Lévi-Strauss • History of anthropology

Social Science Information, Vol. 45, No. 1, 79-107 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0539018406061104


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