SOC483Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Mary Douglas, Book Of Leviticus, The Savage Mind
Document Summary
Today other than durkheim, it is the first time we encounter readings talking about classifications, concepts and categorization. These are important concepts for the course over the year. Both anthropologists foundational figures both structuralist anthropologists. Strauss- first to study cultures in a structuralist way similar to how saussure understood language. The first to look at cultures in a different way. The savage mind 1962 published in france. Up till him, anthropologists studied cultures in 2 ways: 1. Or like durkheim in a functionalist way things exist in a society because they serve a function (mary douglas does this) L. s took a different view- he took a structuralist view. Like how saussure understood language and understood words in relation to other words- that is how he understood a conceptual system. A culture is a system of symbolic communication according to l. s resonates. Some examples- one major work traced a myth from antarctica to south africa- same structure would exist.
