Structuralism-Science or Ideology?

Abstract

Freak or genius? Opinion with regard to Levi-Strauss has wavered persistently between these two extremes. The question is personal and quite irrelevant to anthropological theory. That it is raised, however, is symptomatic of the bewilderment of those who avowedly do not understand him, when confronted with the ecstatic transports of those who professedly do. All, of course, recognize signs of intense cleverness in his writings; but cleverness, as felt by many, borders perilously on sheer artfu1ness.l It is therefore not surprising that his writings should always have been received with diffidence by British anthropologists. Obviously, before such distrust could be overcome, wide acceptance of his views, in Britain, was hardly to be expected.