Talk:Claude Lévi-Strauss

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Contents 1 Is he related to the jean company? 2 Should something be added here about post-structural criticism? 3 Proposed outline 4 French, Belgian, or Swiss? 5 One of the twentieth century's greatest intellectuals 6 possible addition to Bib 7 Lévi-Strauss Influences 8 French Structuralism?

[edit] Is he related to the jean company?

Was he related to the people of the Levi-Strauss jean company???? Antonio Jack Daniels Martin

You mean Levi Strauss the clothing manufacturer.

[edit] Should something be added here about post-structural criticism?

I wonder if this article does not present a broad enough view of Lévi-Strauss in ignoring the criticism he has attracted from Derrida and others; as the previous contributors might know it was partly the reaction to Lévi-Strauss' reductive theories that gave rise to the amalgam of philosophies sometimes termed as 'post-structuralism.' The article does say some of his later work is "controversial" but perhaps that could be expounded on; comments welcome. -- Simonides 05:11, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

looks great!

[edit] Proposed outline

This article is pretty good, but is long enough that some headers would be of assistance. This reveals that it is somewhat scattered, with an entire paragraph about how marriage customs interested him, followed by 22 paragraphs, and then another two paragraphs on the same subject. Therefore, I propose an outline:

1. Intro
2. Philosophy
3. Anthropological context
4. Marriage customs
5. Conclusion

User:Hyacinth/Outlines

[edit] French, Belgian, or Swiss?

He was born in Brussels but appears to have spent most of his adult life in France. Does anyone know his citizenship? --Angr/_{tɔk tə mi} 06:47, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

Levi-Strauss was a citizen of France. Iirc, his family frequently vacationed in Belgium, and that is why he was born there. Rex 07:12, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks! One more thing--you speak of him in the past tense, but the article gives no death date. Is he dead or alive? --Angr/_{tɔk tə mi} 07:47, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

Two members of my dissertation committee studies with L-S, one very closely. Afaik he's still around. In fact I think the birthdate for him is wrong -- I remember many people celebrating his 100th birthday, but I can find no sources on the internet that confirm this. Maybe I'm nuts. Rex 03:59, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

Or maybe, like George Burns, he celebrated his 100th birthday early, so as to be sure not to miss it. --Angr/_{tɔk tə mi} 06:05, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

I wonder if Lévi-Strauss has already stumbled on his Wikipedia page, but be nice and let Jacques Chirac think about his old age: who, from the fool or the wiseman, has the most to be scared about? But, let's be nice to everybody, because Jacques Chirac is also part of Lévi-Strauss fan-club, which shows he's not such a simple-minded guy...

He's 96, I think. I don't know how I got that number into my head so it may be off by a year or two. He's not yet 100, though. MTBradley 17:29, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

NEITHER; He is Swiss. Every textbook I've ever read, and ever lecture I've ever had, has refered to him as being Swiss (if it has refered to his nationality at all). And I quote: "Structuralist thought began with the work of the Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure" (Barker, 2005: 806) He may have published in French, he may got a French passport during his latter life, but that is besides the point. I have changed the page accordingly. Tomsega/_{tɔk tə mi} 19:47, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] One of the twentieth century's greatest intellectuals

This is a direct violation of a guideline. Please avoid peacock terms. If you think he is well cited, please provide verifieable statistics of citation of his works rather than saying "he is one of the most well cited author" which amount to the same thing. Vapour

Have you got an axe to grind against him? Lévi-Strauss was one of the main founder of structuralism, without which there would be no post-structuralism. He inspired more than three generations of thinkers in France and elsewhere, and his Alliance theory remained predominant in France until the 1980s, that is, 30 years after he initially formulated it. See:

"Albert Einstein (German pronunciation (help·info)) (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a theoretical physicist widely regarded as the most important scientist of the 20th century and one of the greatest physicists of all time."

"Michel Foucault (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher who held a chair at the Collège de France, which he gave the title "The History of Systems of Thought." His writings have had an enormous impact on other scholarly work: Foucault's influence extends across the humanities and social sciences, and across many applied and professional areas of study."

"The name Freud is generally pronounced /fɹɔɪd/ in English and /frɔɪt/ in German. He is commonly referred to as "the father of psychoanalysis" and his work has been tremendously influential in the popular imagination – popularizing such notions as the unconscious, defence mechanisms, freudian slips and dream symbolism – while also making a long-lasting impact on fields as diverse as literature, film, marxist and feminist theories, literary criticism, philosophy, and of course, psychology.

"Ferdinand de Saussure (pronounced [fɛr.di.nã.dɘ.so.ˈsyr]) (November 26, 1857 - February 22, 1913) was a Geneva-born Swiss linguist whose ideas laid the foundation for many of the significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century. He is widely considered the 'father' of 20th-century linguistics."

"Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (April 7, 1884 – May 16, 1942) was a Polish anthropologist widely considered to be one of the most important anthropologists of the twentieth century because of his pioneering work on ethnographic fieldwork, the study of reciprocity, and his detailed contribution to the study of Melanesia."

Etc. etc. We are not talking about a minor intellectual, and Lévi-Strauss' influence has gone far outside the limits of anthropology. Much of today's work would have had a very different figure without him. You are either showing off your ignorance, or your hatred. Stop. Lapaz 15:42, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

I pay a visit to a section of a public park which I haven't visited before. I notice a litter, pick it up and put it in a bin. Someone come along, take the litter from the bin and put it back on the ground.

I - "Why did you do that!???"

Someone - "Look around you. There are other litters lying around in the park. I insist that you pick up all other litters. I won't let you pick this litter until you do."

Please do not be so unreasonable. Wikipedia is free and open to everyone, and are supposed to be maintained by the collective goodwill of the community. I nor you have a responsibility to be "the" janitor of the whole park. But it is a nice thing to do if someone like myself pick up someone else's litter. You are free to collect litters in other sections of the park which you surveyed. As of your paranoia about me having an axe to grind, this is simply misplaced. I haven't heard his name until it popped up in a forum debate a while ago. Sorry but not everyone study modern French philosophy. I don't know much about French style of gardening but I just happened to notice a litter (peackock word), which wasn't that difficult to spot. Vapour

Hate to quibble but the external link to John Hopkins Guide is not very accessible.I've been seeing that link on quite a few pages lately.It's against the guidelines and shold'nt someone delete it?Zain

[edit] possible addition to Bib

I came across this reference while working on this edit in Definition.
I don't know enough about this article to decide whether this reference should be added to the Bib.

1962 "Social structure." in Anthropology today: Selections. Edited by Sol Tax, . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [first published in 1952]

--Jtir 15:13, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lévi-Strauss Influences

The article talks a little about the influence the study of phonetics had on Lévi-Strauss, yet I don't see any mention to one of the most influential figures in the French anthropologist's work, namely, Ferdinand de Saussure. This is not something controversial, either: at several times throughout Structural Anthropology Lévi-Strauss explicitly mentions this influence (see, for example, in his "The Structure of Myths").

Another important influence that was left out from the article is that of psychoanalysis. Again, this clinical practice started by Freud had an important impact on Lévi-Strauss work, an impact he also explicitly acknowledges: in the aforementioned work, when he's discussing the therapeutic efficacy of certain rituals ("The Symbolic Efficacious"), he draws parallels between the rituals and the clinical practices of psychoanalysis, indicating the influence the latter had on his vision of how the former work.

Conversely, there's also little talk about the reception of Lévi-Strauss works; how he influenced, for example, Foucault in his search of the "historical a priori", or how his structuralist vision helped shape the French intellectual experience.

I would include a "Reception" and "Influences" section on the article myself, yet I don't feel like I'm apt to do so, as I have just begun to read Lévi-Strauss — besides, I don't have much time to do a decent work right now. Yet, if no one else does it, perhaps I'll eventually sketch out those sections... Daniel Nagase 03:05, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] French Structuralism?

Currently there is no article for French Structuralism! Anybody interested in spearheading this? No time for me now, but perhaps soon. -- greek lamb 01:49, 19 December 2006 (UTC)