"Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system."
A theoretical approach that emphasizes the underlying structures, patterns, and systems that shape culture and society.
Structural linguistics: A scientific study of language that is the foundation of Structuralism. It’s concerned with the structure of language rather than its usage.
Binary oppositions: A concept that describes the two diametrically opposed categories that structures the world.
Myth: A story or narrative that is used to explain or understand the world around us.
Semiology: Focuses on the study of signs, symbols, and signs as carriers of meaning.
Symbolism: A concept that is concerned with the use of symbols in language, culture, and society.
Structuralism vs. functionalism: These are two common approaches to anthropological theory. Structuralism focuses on the underlying structures that organize human society, while functionalism focuses on the roles and functions of different parts of society.
Claude Lévi-Strauss: French anthropologist who’s considered the father of Structuralism.
Binary logic: The oppositional nature of Structuralism means that binary logic is used to identify and classify categories.
Structural anthropology: The study of the underlying social structures that exist within a culture.
Cultural anthropology: The study of human cultures and societies.
Ferdinand de Saussure: Swiss linguist who developed the theory of Structuralism.
Cognitive anthropology: The study of the relationship between language, culture, and human cognition.
Jacques Lacan: French psychoanalyst who developed ideas related to structural linguistics and cultural interpretation.
Karl Marx: German philosopher and economist whose work had a significant influence on Structuralism.
Structural Marxism: A Marxist interpretative approach that uses Structuralism to understand social institutions and economic relations.
T.S. Eliot: American-British poet whose work explored the relationship between language, culture, and society.
Post-Structuralism: A theoretical framework that critiques Structuralism and questions the basic philosophical assumptions that underpin Structuralism.
Structural functionalism: A sociological theory that looks at society as a set of interconnected parts that work together to maintain social order.
Structural engineering: Application of Structuralism on the engineering field that deals with the design and analysis of structures.
Cultural relativism: The idea that understanding a culture requires suspending judgment of it based on one's own cultural norms and values.
Linguistic structuralism: Developed by Ferdinand de Saussure, this approach studies the linguistic system and explores how meaning is constructed through the relationships between language elements.
Structural-functionalism: This approach views society as a system made up of interconnected parts, each with its own function, and studies the social structures that maintain social order and stability.
Levi-Straussian structuralism: Developed by Claude Levi-Strauss, this approach focuses on analyzing the similarities and differences between various cultural systems and explores the underlying structures that shape human thinking, perception, and communication.
Marxist structuralism: This approach draws on Marxist theory and analyzes society as a system of power relations between different social classes, exploring how these relationships are structured and how they affect social life.
Cultural structuralism: This approach focuses on the structure of culture and how it shapes human behavior and perception, exploring the influences of cultural norms, values, and symbols on individuals and groups.
Psychological structuralism: This approach explores the structure of the mind and the underlying cognitive processes that shape human behavior and perception, focusing on patterns of thought and behavior that are shared across individuals and cultures.
Evolutionary structuralism: This approach analyzes the historical development of social and cultural structures over time and explores how these structures have evolved to shape human behavior and perception.
"It works to uncover the structural patterns that underlie all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel."
"Alternatively, as summarized by philosopher Simon Blackburn, structuralism is: 'The belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations.'"
"Structuralism in Europe developed in the early 20th century, mainly in France and the Russian Empire."
"Along with Lévi-Strauss, the most prominent thinkers associated with structuralism include linguist Roman Jakobson and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan."
"French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss was arguably the first such scholar, sparking a widespread interest in structuralism."
"The structuralist mode of reasoning has since been applied in a range of fields, including anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary criticism, economics, and architecture."
"By the late 1960s, many of structuralism's basic tenets came under attack from a new wave of predominantly French intellectuals/philosophers such as historian Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, and literary critic Roland Barthes."
"These theorists eventually came to be referred to as post-structuralists."
"Many proponents of structuralism, such as Lacan, continue to influence continental philosophy."
"As an intellectual movement, structuralism became the heir to existentialism."
"Structuralism in Europe developed in the early 20th century, mainly in France and the Russian Empire, in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague, Moscow, and Copenhagen schools of linguistics."
"After World War II, an array of scholars in the humanities borrowed Saussure's concepts for use in their respective fields."
"French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss was arguably the first such scholar, sparking a widespread interest in structuralism."
"Behind local variations in the surface phenomena there are constant laws of abstract structure."
"Structuralism in Europe developed in the early 20th century, mainly in France and the Russian Empire."
"The structuralist mode of reasoning has since been applied in a range of fields, including anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary criticism, economics, and architecture."
"The structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague, Moscow, and Copenhagen schools of linguistics."
"By the late 1960s, many of structuralism's basic tenets came under attack from a new wave of predominantly French intellectuals/philosophers such as historian Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, and literary critic Roland Barthes."
"Many of the fundamental assumptions of some of structuralism's post-structuralist critics are a continuation of structuralist thinking."