Elementary Structures Reconsidered: Levi-Strauss on Kinship

Elementary Structures Reconsidered offers a critical analysis of Claude Lévi-Strauss’s seminal work Les Structures élémentaires de la parenté, a landmark in social anthropology that has significantly influenced the field. Lévi-Strauss’s theory of kinship systems, which he presents as a general theory, asserts that kinship terminologies are not merely descriptive of biological relationships but are based on social categories that reflect systems of exchange, particularly marriage. His distin...