Media, Information and Technoculture 2200F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Binary Opposition, Ferdinand De Saussure, Incest Taboo
27 Sep 2016
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Anthropology, literary studies, psychology, psychoanalysis, philosophy, sociology were all effected by structuralism. Used saussure"s understanding of language and his understanding of the sign as a model. Culture has a structure and that the structure could be understood as analogous to the structure of language. Structuralists view social and cultural phenomena parts of differential systems, not as having essential meanings in themselves. E. g. , kicking a ball between 2 posts has no intrinsic meaning, only within the larger group of sports would it have a meaning. That structure determines the position of every element. The structure is hidden or obscure most of the time, but it is the real thing beneath the surface. Focus on coexistence rather than change (i. e. , proceed synchronically rather than diachronically) Structuralism tries to think a structure without a center. Structures without some kind of origin point that creates the structure and creates the rules that govern the structure- not created by god or humans.
