1971/01/01 by Francis Korn · 1 citation
Psychology · Mathematics · #Categorization, perception, and language #Terminology #Character (mathematics) #Brother #Daughter #Sister #Philosophy #Genealogy #Sociology #Mathematics #Law #History #Political science #Linguistics #Anthropology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1163/22134379-90002791
openalex publication_date 1971/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/06
Ies Structures élémentaires de la parentê, by Claude Lévi-Strauss, | I is generally considered not only as one of the pivots in modern anthropological theary but also as a masterpiece of empirical analysis.The recent English edition of the book (Lévi-Strauss, 1969) makes especially relevant the task of assessing its actual virtues.We intend to do so here by considering one of the analyses Lévi-Strauss undertakes.We have chosen the Dieri case in particular because of its importance in earlier anthropological works, and because of the "anomalous" character that Lévi-Strauss ascribes to it. 1 As in the case of Wikmunkan society (Lévi-Strauss, 1949, pp.246-251), 2 Lévi-Strauss considers the Dieri system as an example of transition from "generalized" (asymmetrie) exchange to "restricted" (symmetrie) exchange (Lévi-Strauss, 1949, pp.260-262).The Dieri system presents, according to Lévi-Strauss, great analytical difficulties, mainly due to the faot that it exhibits the "structure" of a tnoiety system and the rule of marriage corresponding to a so-called Aranda system (eight sections), namely marriage with the mother's mother's brother's daughter's daughter, or, in general, marriage between children of first cross-cousins, with prohibition of marriage between first cross-cousins (Lévi-Strauss, 1949, p. 256). 3On the other hand, and in spite of Radcliffe-Brown's efforts, the Dieri system cannot be treated as an Aranda system, says Lévi-Strauss, because it is only "apparently