Strukturalna antropologija danas
Structural Anthropology Today
In honour of Claude Levi-Strauss
Contributor(s): Dragana Antonijević (Editor)
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure
Published by: Srpski genealoški centar
- Page Count: 366
- Publication Year: 2009
- Language: English, Croatian, Serbian
Modernizam i strukturalizam
Modernizam i strukturalizam
(MODERNISM AND STRUCTURALISM)
- Author(s):Ivan Kovačević
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Semiology, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
- Page Range:8-31
- No. of Pages:24
- Keywords:structuralism;levi-strauss;modernisation of serbian ethnology; serbian structuralist-semantic-revolution
- Summary/Abstract:Modernisation of Serbian ethnology/anthropology in the second quarter of the twentieth century was marked by structuralism. More precisely, structural analysis that became a must of the analytical interpretation was based on the work of Claude Levi-Strauss, but also on those of the predecessors of structural analysis, like Van Gennep and Propp; British followers of structuralism like E. Leach and M. Douglas, as well as on the Russian semiotic school and Barth's semiology. Ta-king aside predecessors of structural analysis, main sources of Serbian structural-semiotic revolution came from Levi-Strauss structural anthropology. When in the 1970s Serbian readers faced anthropological books coming from different intellectual backgrounds and re-presenting major theoretical trends in anthropology, Serbian ethnology, firmly based on its hundred years old romantic roots, gave equally opportunities to all theoretical approaches that fought for the intellectual domination in the discipline. This paper tries to answer the question why structural analysis played a crucial part in the modernisation of Serbian ethnology/anthropology, while the ideas coming from functionalism, culture and personality school, or neoevolutionism did not have the same revolutionary and deep impact.
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Eh, da je Derida propustio taj let...
Eh, da je Derida propustio taj let...
(IF ONLY DERRIDA MISSED THAT FLIGHT...)
- Author(s):Miloš Milenković
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure
- Page Range:32-56
- No. of Pages:25
- Keywords:history of anthropology;levi-strauss;structuralism;poststructuralism;theory;postmodernity; Ivan Kovačević; Belgrade Structural-semiotic School
- Summary/Abstract:Taking into account recent critiques of “underdevelop-ment”, “positivism”, “methodological backwardness” and ot-her failings attributed to so-called •American Anthropology‡ by some of the authors from the Belgrade Structural-semio-tic School of Anthropology of Folklore, I analyse the context in which colleagues and students may be tempted to explain common sense political connection between polyphone ethnography, neo-romanticism and nationalism as counter-in-tuitive history of the discipline. I already pointed that the important transformative dif-ferences in the attitudes towards structuralism between European anthropologists, especially Belgrade Structural-semiotic School of Anthropology of Folklore and so called American Anthropology, are the conseˆuence of a pure co-incidence ` the fact that French structuralism and French poststructuralism were launched simultaneously at the Ame-rican interdisciplinary intellectual scene (“Theory”) at the same conference. This ironic concurrence would not be much more than one entertaining episode for students, hi-storians of anthropology and historians of ideas, if there we-re no attempts (more and more frequent and increasingly fluently articulated) to compare different intellectual traditions as they were elements of the same unilineal evolution of the discipline. Belgrade Structural-semiotic School (further called only SS) and especially its spiritus movens and most prominent representative Prof. Kova evi started in recent years to criticise some “American Anthropology” measuring its” academic achievement” (the author's term) in comparati-ve perspective and taking as an analytical unit uncritically generalized traditions marked with a single term of “post-modern anthropology” on the one hand, and “anthropology” on the other. Belgrade SS School did develop globally original, although badly promoted and never fully used, battery for the synchronic analysis of the folklore phenomena, but this was done only after Leach, Needham, Schneider and representa-tives of ethnoscience and cognitive anthropology had al-ready adapted Levi-Strauss's ideas about mind and science to ethnographic phenomenology. Transformation of Levi-Strauss's analysis and limited success of its adaptation to the analysis of phenomena that usually concern anthropo-logy happened simultaneously with the development of the critique of structuralism as a theory of culture in the Ameri-can academic scene. This proves a theory that there is at le-ast one “Atlantic split”, analogue to that in philosophy, morethan it makes a relevant context for measuring of the com-parative “academic achievements” of the specific and uncon-nected disciplinary traditions. Indirectly, this paper explains that Levi-Strauss's work has contradictory functions in the history of ideas in anthropo-logy, serving as a starting point for •postmodern” neo-romantic and positivistic critique of imperial realism (in USA), as well as •enlightened”, realistic and anti-tribal critique of ethnology as positivistic, nationalistic and national science (in Serbia). In this paper, special emphasis is placed on the local context in which structuralism as a founding discourse of anthropology is opposed to ethnology as national prose. As such it had completely different role in comparison to struc-turalism in a) the history of American anthropology and b) in the history of interdisciplinary/postmodern Theory.
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Gerc vs. Levi-Stros: latentne strukturalne pretpostavke u Gercovom kulturalizmu?
Gerc vs. Levi-Stros: latentne strukturalne pretpostavke u Gercovom kulturalizmu?
(GEERTZ VS. LEVI-STRAUSS: LATENT STRUCTURAL DISPOSITIONS IN GEERTZ THEORY OF CULTURE ?)
- Author(s):Gordana Gorunović
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure , Sociology of Culture
- Page Range:58-94
- No. of Pages:37
- Keywords:Claude Levi-Strauss;Clifford Geertz;structuralism; culturalism; theory of culture; cultural diversity; anthro-pological writing
- Summary/Abstract:These are two authors, in Foucauldian terms that certainly belong to the most influential individuals in socio-cultural anthropology, as well as in the social sciences and interdisci-plinary research more broadly. Claude Levi-Strauss became some kind of an intellectual hero during the domination of structuralism in the mid-twentieth century and during the 1960s, while Clifford Geertz was an icon and ambassador of anthropology in the second half of the twentieth century. They are both one of the founders of the discourse theory. They not only established a distinct theoretical approaches and methods structural (Levi-Strauss) and interpretative anthropology (Clifford Geertz), but through their intellectual authority they also inspired paradigms and intellectual move-ments making structuralism and interpretation of culture more than some passing episodes in the history of social tho-ugh (in terms of trendy ideas ). My aim is to make some parallels between these two aut-hors, who despite all the differences that are evident in their epi-stemological discourses, theoretical approaches and methods (as well as in their ethnographic and anthropological writings it-self) still have some similarities in their theorisation and inter-pretation of culture, which I would like to stress in this paper.
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Transcendentalni idealizam i strukturalizam
Transcendentalni idealizam i strukturalizam
(TRANSCENDENTAL IDEALISM AND STRUCTURALISM)
- Author(s):Ivan Vuković
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):German Idealism, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure
- Page Range:96-107
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:Kant; Levi-Strauss; transcendental idealism and structuralism; a prior formal framework
- Summary/Abstract:The author examines possible analogies between Kant's transcendental idealism and de Saussure's and Levi-Straus's structuralism, in order to analyse if the former can be understood as a predecessor for the later. The author shows that both teachings assume a priori formal framework, but they diverge in the ways they describe it, as well as in un-derstanding of its function. Consequently, the author concludes that structuralism can be seen as one possible use of Kant's idea about the existence of such a frame. Furthermore, the author claims that Ricker's understanding of structu-ralism as “Kantianism without transcendental subject” should be rejected, since a teaching which does not assume existence of such subject cannot be understood as Kantian.
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Levi-Stros: UNESCO = antropologija : politika
Levi-Stros: UNESCO = antropologija : politika
(LEVI-STRAUSS : UNESCO = ANTHROPOLOGY : POLITICS)
- Author(s):Ljiljana Gavrilović
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Applied Sociology
- Page Range:108-134
- No. of Pages:27
- Keywords:Levi-Strauss; UNESO; polticis; race; culture; heritage protection
- Summary/Abstract:This paper discusses Levi-Strauss engagement in UNESO activities. On the one hand, Levi-Strauss engagement in Pakistan had an important impact on his later work, as well as on his overall view about the world and culture(s); while on the other, Levi-Strauss's definitions of the relationship between race/nation and culture had an important influen-ce on the ways in which UNESO dealt with the ideas about culture and on the ways these ideas were implemented in its global strategies of action in/towards culture. On the one hand, this engagement included a delivery of the European world view (as a superior one) to everyone who does not have it; while on the other, it also meant a protection of ma-terial remains of different cultures world-wide and protec-tion of non-material heritage and/as entire 'Othernness', whenever it is located, and (at least in theory) however it looks like. In that sense, Levi-Strauss public engagement had an important impact not only on anthropology, as a discipli-ne that he dedicated his life to, but also to the formation of contemporary understanding of politically correct relationship towards the 'Other'.
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Lévi-Strauss and the Opera
Lévi-Strauss and the Opera
(LEVI-STRAUSS AND THE OPERA)
- Author(s):Vlado Kotnik
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Music, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure
- Page Range:136-170
- No. of Pages:35
- Keywords:Lévi-Strauss; structural reading of opera; metapho-rical "composing"; Mythologiques; opera as myth and metaphor.
- Summary/Abstract:This paper is dedicated to Claude Lévi-Strauss and his structural reading of opera as metaphorical 'composing' of an anthropological grand opera, materialized in the four-volume study of Mythologiques, which refers to Wagner s tetralogy of The Ring. He created a type of comparative view of the fun-ction and structure of myth schemes in Amerindian culture and the orchestral scores of Wagner s operas, and implicitly signalled that European music, with its eminent representation opera has had the same value or similar symbolic position in the mind and life of a contemporary European that myth has had in the savage mind . Through this, he can lead us to the understanding of opera as myth and metaphor. However, the paper extends the discussion on Lévi-Strauss to a broader historical picture of the relationship between opera and mythology as two symbolic systems of European culture
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Klod Levi-Stros: maska i mit
Klod Levi-Stros: maska i mit
(CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS: MASK AND MYTH)
- Author(s):Senka Kovač
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure
- Page Range:172-195
- No. of Pages:24
- Keywords:Levi-Strauss; mask; myth; North American Indians
- Summary/Abstract:This paper discuss a relationship between mask and myth and how the appropriate analysis by Claude Levi-Strauss may make clearer a complex field of masks in the part of North America. Claude Levi-Strauss stressed the multilayered character of myth structure. Similar multi-layered character can be seen at the level of expression, content and meaning of Salish, Kwakiutl and other unique masks of this part of North America. Claude Levi-Strauss analysed certain myths trying to explain 'the path' of the masks that belong to the people with similar languages, or those who lived nearby. The mythology of Tsimshian, Tlingit and Haïda people have certain common characteristics that point to the similarities with the nearby groups (Kwakiutl). Despite differences that exist at the level of meanings of the masks, there is also common 'mythological heritage' of the people who used to live in the Northern Pacific Coast. Caude Levi-Strauss showed that there is no final solution in the myth analysis, and that there is no possibility that the dissection of the problem will reveal some hidden unity. 'As mythical though does not want to start clearly somewhere and come somewhere, it never goes through its whole trajectory: there is always something waiting to be fullfield. The same way as rituals, myths are infinite.' It seems that Levi-Strauss explanation of the Path of masks goes in that direction.
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Strukturalizam u arheologiji
Strukturalizam u arheologiji
(STRUCTURALISM IN ARCHAEOLOGY)
- Author(s):Aleksandar Palavestra
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Archaeology, Semiology, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure
- Page Range:196-214
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:structuralism in archaeology; poststructural critique; postprocessual archaeology; material culture in a semantic field
- Summary/Abstract:Although, back in the 1970s, Edmund Leach threatened archaeology that he will 'poison' it with structuralism, his structuralist work did not have that far reaching impact on the changes of archaeological interpretative paradigms. The reason for that is ` on the one hand, structuralists' lack of in-terest in diachronic interpretation, and on the other, the concept of the universal structures of mind for which upco-ming poststructuralism did not have much interest. To be fair, there are some rather interesting structuralist interpretations in archaeology (even in the Serbian one) mostly based on the application of binary oppositions. However, in the broader context, structuralism, work of Levi-Strauss, and de Saussure linguistics in particular, enabled archaeolo-gists to understand material culture in a semiotic field - as a study of signs and contexts of meanings. In other words, objects in archaeology, under the influence of structuralism, have been seen as organised in the wider systems of signs (organised in binary oppositions, but not necessarily) with particular meanings. One of the problems of this semiotic, structural approach in archaeology is that it automatically equates material culture and language, which is highly pro-blematic, since meanings in material culture are rarely arbitrary in the way that it is the case in a linguistic relation between signifier and signified. Poststructuralism, theory of practices and poststructuralist critique of scientific positivism had much higher impact to archaeology, especially postprocessual one.
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"Pobuna označitelja": suvremena radijacija pojma bricolage
"Pobuna označitelja": suvremena radijacija pojma bricolage
("REBELLION OF THE SIGNIFIER": CONTEMPORARY EFFECTS OF THE CONCEPT BRICOLAGE)
- Author(s):Ines Prica
- Language:Croatian
- Subject(s):Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure
- Page Range:216-245
- No. of Pages:30
- Keywords:Levi-Strauss; bricolage; paradoxes of transitory societies; 'irrational mentality'
- Summary/Abstract:In this paper the concept of bricolage is applied to the paradoxical contexts of transitory societies using the translation of general theoretical concepts to those politically recognizable. On the one hand, notions of intersubjectivity, improvisation and self-organisation suggest social functioning based on the principles of free market, management and self-government; while on the other, common understanding of transition as the 'application of democracy ' according to a model, introduces radically different background of 'bricolage' as non-inventiveness, imitation, fragmentary connection and 'irrational mentality'.
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Povodom Levi-Strosovog koncepta "motiva zaborava"
Povodom Levi-Strosovog koncepta "motiva zaborava"
(IN REGARD TO LEVI-STRAUSS'S "MOTIVE OF OBLIVION")
- Author(s):Dragana Antonijević
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Semiology, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Theory of Communication
- Page Range:246-295
- No. of Pages:50
- Keywords:Levi-Strauss's 'motive of oblivion'; structure of disturbed communication, styles and communities of thoughts; modes of veridiction; transition; socio-normative function of the semantics of the obliv
- Summary/Abstract:This paper starts with Levi-Strauss's semantic concept that consists of oblivion, misunderstanding, indiscretion and nostalgia. Through his analysis of North American and Greek myths, Levi-Strauss concluded that 'semantic filed of oblivion' has an important meaning especially in the construction of particular rules and rituals; or, in other words, it has an important part in the introduction of culture to the nature of cognitive and social processes. After the introduction of concept Structure of disturbed communication and some corrections to the Levi-Strauss's concept, I start with the proposition that the period of transition represents unstable and 'slippery' time in which society negotiates different meanings. That is the time when different styles of thoughts, represented by different and powerful groups that have an impact on current social, political and ideological processes, compete with each other fighting for supremacy. Their field of communication can be seen as a field of 'disturbed communication', which in the final instance has a normative function: to reinforce and regulate certain attitudes, ideas and knowledge. This is achieved through the narratives which symbolise a community of newly established order in the moment of its supposed sociohistorical stabilisation. Finally, combining two different theoretical models ` Levi-Strauss's one described above with Greimas's ideas about structures of modes of veridiction, this paper predicts chances of particular paradigmatic forms of thought in transitory Serbia to became dominant modes of thought, despite of their current low visibility in the public sphere. In mythical terms, it seems though that their domineering efforts are predetermined to success or fail, since they position them-selves according to the laws immanent to these structures themselves, which on their part a priori position these structures as powerful or powerless, influential or non-influential communities of thought.
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Strukturalizam u proučavanju narodne religije u Srbiji
Strukturalizam u proučavanju narodne religije u Srbiji
(STRUCTURALIST INSPIRED RESEARCH OF FOLK RELIGION IN SERBIA)
- Author(s):Danijel Sinani
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Customs / Folklore, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure
- Page Range:296-325
- No. of Pages:30
- Keywords:structuralism; folk religion; Serbia; research breaking point
- Summary/Abstract:This paper discusses application of structuralist methodology to the research of folk region in Serbia. I discussed possible anticipations and the beginning of application of structural methodology; period of high popularity of rites of passage theories in our ethnology/anthropology, as well as most developed forms of analysis inspired by structuralism. On the example of two specifically chosen 'case studies' I show the ways in which structuralism in our science helped us to see problems from a completely new angle and foste-red a creation of new and original conclusions. In the paper, I claim that the beginning of applications of the ideas and methods developed in structuralism, made a breaking point with the previous research of folk religion, and at its highest points, in some ways, made a basis for the understanding of folk religion as a holistic system.
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Za šta su dobri žanrovi?
Za šta su dobri žanrovi?
(WHAT ARE GENRES GOOD FOR? DIVISIONS)
- Author(s):Bojan Žikić
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure
- Page Range:326-361
- No. of Pages:36
- Keywords:cognitive anthropology; anthropological structuralism; genre; music: classical; rock 'n' roll and so called folk
- Summary/Abstract:Levi-Strauss's theoretical-methodological 'legatee' - anthropological structuralism was one of the most important theoretical frameworks used in cognitive anthropology. Since it was sometimes too abstract for 'practical' minds, trained in British-American empirical traditions, Levi-Strauss thought was mediated through the works of British structural-functionalist, particularly those of Mary Douglas and Edmund Leach, who established its premises as a kind of contextualised particularism of the unquestioned universalism. Ideas about the way in which human cultural mind functions, is one of the corner stones of cognitive anthropology, which cognitive anthropology shares with structural anthropology, and from which cognitive anthropology actually in-herits what it shares with structural anthropology - this sounds properly structural ☺ - that is: an interest in the pro-cesses of division, demarcation and classification in a sense of cultural management of a perceived surrounding reality. An example for such analysis, that I use in this paper, is music, or more precisely music culture, an expression that I use in order to imply that the affinity to a type of music, or musical genre should be understood in a sense of a particular cultural way of thinking and acting.
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