Levi Strauss theories : nature and culture and myth

Résumé du document

Thanks to the Levi's Strauss work , we are able to think more profoundly about the self and the others : he has underline deeply that we have to remember in every anthropological study that others have other way of thinking and of doing. In this essay I will try to show that by reading Levi Strauss I've been conscious that there is different approaches of the world, to classify or to define what is around us. That's why I would like first to make a first study of the distinction made by Levi Strauss between nature and culture. What Levi Strauss shows is that the nature is culturally defined by the human beings. That's gives first a lot of field for anthropological studies and then that is a way to show that those two notions are not just opposite , but they intimately linked to each other. Then, to follow the thinkings on the specific ways of doing and of classify the world according to the different societies, I would like to focus on the notion of myth for Levi Strauss. His study of myths in a structural perspective was a major step , and has been a deep influence for anthropological studies even if it has been also criticized.

Extraits

[...] Such marriages are a way to solve the conflict between the patrilineal and matrilineal tendencies. After having growth in his father's home, a man has to go to live in their maternal uncle's house. So by marrying his mother's brother's daughter he ensures to keep his hereditary privileges. According to Levi Strauss the message of the myth is to show that the marriage system in this society is an attempt to solve the problem and the tensions of the departure of the men from the father's house to the maternal uncle's house, but the myth shows that this attempt fails. [...]

[...] However it's also a rule which come from the society and ''retains what in nature is most likely to go beyond it'. To quote Levi Strauss That's allow us to go further and to describe the relationship between nature and culture by a dynamic approach , saying with Levi Strauss that the incest prohibition is at once on the threshold of culture, in culture and in one sense , culture itself.'' Then, Levi Strauss tries to find from where comes the rules of the incest prohibition. [...]

[...] By studying some of the modern myths such as the general strike, he highlights the importance of the context when we deal with myths: so to that extent this study could be opposed to Levi Strauss work. In this essay, I've tried to show how we can give a look on the whole work of Levi Strauss thanks to the specific angle of kinship. Books Used Claude Levi- Strauss The elementary structures of kinship. Maurice Godelier Transformations of Kinship. Morris E.Opler An outline of Chiricahua Apache social organization''. Claude Levi Strauss The Story of Asdiwal. [...]

[...] What Levi Strauss shows is that the nature is culturally defined by the human beings. That's gives first a lot of field for anthropological studies and then that is a way to show that those two notions are not just opposite, but they intimately linked to each other. This can be well understood thanks to the kinship theory, and I will try to show fundamental is the notion of incest to understand the distinction and the links between nature and culture. [...]

[...] Then I would like to show how Levi Strauss applies his vision of nature and culture to the study of the societies and their rules. First of all, as far as kinship is concerned it is important to underline that the culture make classification out of the nature. Then with culture a society moves from the natural fact of consanguinity to the cultural fact of alliance. Then the nature or the biological kinship is characterized by the fact that it can give only what has been received. [...]