Levi-Strauss dies

[The Archregimancy]

The French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, father of anthropological structuralism, and one of the most influential thinkers on the human condition from the last century, has died at the age of 100.

I'm a mild post-structuralist / post-processualist myself, but his influence goes far beyond anthropology, and certainly touches on my own discipline of archaeology (which in North America, though not the UK and Australia is a subdiscipline of anthropology anyway). One of his most significant, though occasionally still controversial, contributions to Western thought can be found at the end of the following news story.

French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, whose work deeply influenced Western thinking about civilisation, has died at the age of 100, his publisher Plon said on Tuesday.

Levi-Strauss died overnight Saturday to Sunday, according to fellow academics at the school of social sciences.

Trained as a philosopher, Levi-Strauss shot to prominence with his 1955 book Tristes Tropiques, a haunting account of his travels and studies in the Amazon basin that is considered one of the 20th century's major works.

He was a leading proponent of structuralism, which sought to uncover the hidden, unconscious or primitive patterns of thought believed to determine the outer reality of human culture and relationships.

Structuralism was also, Levi-Strauss liked to say, "the search for unsuspected harmonies."

He had celebrated his 100th birthday on November 28 last year.

French academia and the cultural elite had mobilised to pay homage to Levi-Strauss with a program of films, lectures and reflection on his contribution to modern thinking.

Among the more striking conclusions of his work was the idea that there is no fundamental difference between the belief systems and myths of so-called "primitive" races and those of modern western societies.

AFP

http://www.theage.com.au/world/french-anthropologist-levistrauss-dead-at-100-20091104-hvke.html


Admit it - at least some of you thought this had something to do with jeans


Edit:
Link to longer BBC obituary added: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8341489.stm
And for North Americans: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/04/AR2009110400601.html

[Errinundera]

A post-what yourself?

Do explain.

[Blouman Empire]

Admit it - at least some of you thought this had something to do with jeans

Yep, and while I had heard the name Levi-Strauss before I was not aware of what he had done.

[The Archregimancy]

A post-what yourself?

Do explain.

Very briefly, in archaeology the structuralists/processualists - influenced by Levi-Strauss and similar thinkers - started to look for underlying structures to human behaviour, which in turn led to 1960s theoreticians (particularly North American ones) to attempt to turn archaeology into a 'science'. Archaeology would work according to the scientific method, with research designs based on testable hypotheses, and making increased use of mathematical predictive models.

A post-structuralist/post-processualist reaction then occured in the 1980s (particularly in Britain), where it was argued that the processualists had gone too far, and that archaeology should also attempt to study more qualitative issues such as ideology and meaning, and that not all of these could be examined by looking at a fully structured behaviour. Mathematical formulae and hypothesising research designs weren't necessarily discarded, but were one of many means to an end rather than the sole means to the end - though some went so far as to reject mathematical models entirely.

Like many, I'm somewhere in the fuzzy middle; while I recognise the usefulness of quantitative analysis, I'm more focused on qualitative ideological meaning in material culture (artefacts), and am not too comfortable with trying to fit all human behaviour into narrow predictable patterns (though equally I don't discard the idea that some behaviour is predictable and structured). So I veer towards post-processualism/post-structuralism without being too doctrinaire about it.

Archaeology is by no means unique in this regard. Many other disciplines have followed similar trajectories over a similar period. But it's telling that anthropology and archaeology are typically grouped with 'social sciences' in North America, but 'humanities' in the UK.

Australia, as in so many other things, is somewhere between the UK and North American models, while increasingly developing its own unique approach that uses elements of both.

[Errinundera]

Thanks.

You quoted the Age - are you back in Oz? Or is it a habit you picked up?

[The Archregimancy]

Thanks.

You quoted the Age - are you back in Oz? Or is it a habit you picked up?

A habit I picked up. We still check the Age's website fairly regularly - my wife's from Melbourne, after all, and most of her family live there. We particularly like checking the dam levels as part of an exercise in trying to work out when the water might run out.

We'll be back over for a couple of weeks in March/April of next year.

[Lucasiate]

He makes a mean pair of jeans too.

[Killerustan]

His jeans are his most famous thing.

[Parnassus]

The French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, father of anthropological structuralism, and one of the most influential thinkers on the human condition from the last century, has died at the age of 100.

...his influence goes far beyond anthropology

(parts and pieces snipped)

Sad - Levi-Strauss is fairly influential in literary criticism as well (mostly for his structure of myth). To be honest though, I didn't know he was still alive until I heard that he had died.

[Farnhamia]

The French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, father of anthropological structuralism, and one of the most influential thinkers on the human condition from the last century, has died at the age of 100.

...his influence goes far beyond anthropology

(parts and pieces snipped)

Sad - Levi-Strauss is fairly influential in literary criticism as well (mostly for his structure of myth). To be honest though, I didn't know he was still alive until I heard that he had died.

The same for me, but he was 100, after all. I do remember reading his works - some of them, anyway - away back in college. Always interesting to think about.

[Fiduses and Diuses]

Admit it - at least some of you thought this had something to do with jeans

I know I did.
At least he had a long and apparently influential life.