T 2/19 Structuralism, Matthews, “Structuralism”; Levi-Strauss, “The Culinary Triangle”; selections from “‘Primitive’ Thinking and the ‘Civilized’ Mind,” The Savage Mind, and The Naked Man.

Topics: What is a structural analysis? Critique of humanism and subjectivity, relation to modern science

Note: Pay special attention to The Naked Man because Levi-Strauss states many of his views most explicitly in these passages.

1. What are the main characteristics of Saussure’s linguistics that Levi-Strauss carries over into anthropology?

2. According to Levi-Strauss, what distinguishes structuralism from other schools of thought, such as psychoanalysis, which identify various ‘structures’ in the phenomena that they study? How can this difference be illustrated by the invariant cultural structures described by Levi-Strauss, such as the relationship of the categories of raw and cooked food, the binary oppositions between male and female, positive and negative, right and left, as well as the parallel he draws between these structures and the relationship of phonemes and the binary code found in DNA and other aspects of nature?

3. What is Levi-Strauss’ critique of subjectivity and the human being, and why does it follow naturally from his structuralism?