ELEMENTS OF STRUCTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY K. LEVI-STRAUSS

Abstract

The article examines the main elements and methods of structural anthropology of the French ethnologist Claude Levi-Strauss, published in the work of the same name «Structural anthropology». Determining social life as the subject of research, he focuses on secondary, unconscious cultural phenomena – social etiquette, clothing, moral norms, traditions, rituals, politics and religion. The goal of structural anthropology, which studies the unconscious, – is the unity of the functioning of the human mind in different cultural systems. Cultural phenomena are variations of a single model that can be systematized into a repeating scheme (pattern). Among the elements of «structure» K. Levi- Strauss singles out the kinship system, language, myths.
Family systems are based on universal «grammatical» rules, such as the prohibition of incest and the exchange of women (which also act as «signs» of its structure) between groups, which creates a social order. An important element of structural anthropology K. Levi-Strauss is a language that is a social phenomenon.
He determined linguistic or phonology as the main research method. Through language (mythems) K. Levi-Strauss tried to reveal the nature of myths, which are also part of his «structure». The content of myths is interpreted as a collective consciousness of the past, present and future. Myth is a manifestation of logical thinking, but limited in knowledge about the world, therefore, in myth, a person expresses some things through others with the help of symbols.