"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."
The anthropological theory developed by Claude Lévi-Strauss, which focuses on analyzing the underlying structures of culture and society.
Semiotics: The study of signs and symbols and their interpretation.
Linguistics: Study of language structure and how it influences human thought and behavior.
Psychology: The study of behavior and mental processes.
Marxism: The study of the social and economic structures that shape a society.
Phenomenology: The study of how people perceive and experience the world around them.
Cognition: Study of mental processes such as perception, attention, memory, and problem-solving.
Mythology: The study of stories, legends, and folklore that convey cultural beliefs and values.
Cultural anthropology: The study of human cultures and societies.
Evolutionary psychology: The study of how evolution has shaped human behavior and cognition.
Social anthropology: The study of how societies are organized and interact with one another.
Structural linguistics: Focuses on the relationships between the elements of a language and the rules that govern their combination into larger structures.
Theories of culture: Understanding the diversity of human cultures and the processes of cultural change and continuity.
Gestalt psychology: The study of human perception and how it contributes to the organization of mental representations.
Psychoanalysis: Study of the unconscious mind and how it influences human behavior and thought.
Post-structuralism: Critique of structuralism and its assumptions about the stability and coherence of social structures.
Structural-functionalism: An approach to social anthropology that emphasizes the functions of social institutions and their roles in maintaining social order.
Ethnography: Detailing how fieldwork is carried out in various sociocultural settings.
Structural anthropology: The study of the relationships between cultural phenomena and the structures that underlie them.
History of Anthropology: Understanding the development of the discipline of anthropology over time.
Linguistic Structuralism: Is a method of analyzing language that seeks to uncover the underlying system of rules and patterns that govern linguistic communication. The approach was pioneered by Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist.
Cultural structuralism: Cultural structuralism is an approach that seeks to identify the underlying patterns and structures in human culture. Culture is seen as a system of symbols, meaning, and rules that operate according to a defined set of principles.
Social structuralism: Investigates the ways in which social structures shape human behavior, attitudes, and relationships. Emile Durkheim was one of the pioneers of Social Structuralism.
Structural Marxism: Is an approach that uses structural analysis to explore the economic, social, and political structures that underpin capitalist societies. Its primary exponents were Louis Althusser and Nicos Poulantzas.
Symbolic Structuralism: Involves studying the nuances of meaning that exist in the realm of symbols, often within cultural or religious contexts. This approach was initially developed by Claude Levi-Strauss.
"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."