Claude Levi-Strauss dies

[nominal9]

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE5A24HT20091103
French anthropologist Levi-Strauss dies at 100
Tue Nov 3, 2009 1:22pm EST
Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page[-] Text [+] By Estelle
Shirbon
PARIS (Reuters) - French intellectual Claude Levi-Strauss, the
founder
of structural anthropology, has died at the age of 100, his
publishing
house Plon said on Tuesday.

Levi-Strauss, who was known to a wider public thanks to his 1955
memoir and masterpiece, "Tristes Tropiques," died on Saturday. He
would have turned 101 on November 28.


"He was France's greatest scientist," said writer Jean d'Ormesson,
fellow member of the Academie Francaise which brings together the
elite of the country's intellectual establishment.


A brilliant student who excelled at geology, law and philosophy,
Levi-
Strauss was posted to Brazil as a professor in 1935. It was there
that
he found his vocation for anthropology.


He conducted several expeditions into remote areas of the Amazon
rainforest and the Mato Grosso to study the customs of local tribes,
starting to develop theories and methods that would later have a
profound impact on his field.


He returned to France and was drafted into the French army at the
start of World War Two. After the defeat of France by the Nazis, he
realized that being Jewish had now become dangerous and he moved to
the United States until 1944.


Over the following years, he held a number of prestigious scientific
posts in Paris and New York and started to churn out his influential
scientific volumes.


"I HATE VOYAGES"


In particular, he used tribal customs and myths to show that human
behavior is based on logical systems which may vary from society to
society, but possess a common sub-structure.


These findings, which challenged the notion that Western European
culture was somehow unique or superior, resonated with the ideas of
opponents of colonialism and Levi-Strauss gained a following beyond
the circle of professional anthropologists.


He argued that linguistics, communications and mathematical logic
could be used to reveal fundamental social systems.


Exceptionally erudite, Levi-Strauss was not the most accessible of
thinkers and many of his works are impenetrable to laymen, but he
managed to transcend the esoteric bounds of science with "Tristes
Tropiques."


A detailed account of social behavior among Brazilian tribes,
"Tristes
Tropiques" was set apart from the author's other writings by its
autobiographical content.


While the work's opening sentence -- "I hate voyages and explorers"
--
was hardly designed to win the approval of his scientific peers,
lovers of literature considered it a triumph.


The academy that awards France's most prestigious literary prize, the
Goncourt, announced the night before making public their choice that
year that they regretted being unable to choose "Tristes Tropiques"
because it was not a novel.


He achieved France's highest recognition for a scientist in 1973,
when
he was elected to the Academie Francaise. He also received numerous
honors from foreign universities and governments, including Brazil.

[Serenity Smiles]

I pray for a swift obscuration free reincarnation, thank him and love him
for even in his death he has been of benefit to us all as we are reminded of
his great efforts, endeavours and work, to enlighten the world through
skillful and compassionate means and a truly loving altruistic nature.

--------------------------------------------------,
From: "nominal9" <nomi...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 6:51 PM
To: "Epistemology" <episte...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [epistemology 10926] Claude Levi-Strauss dies

[chazwin]

For me this event seems to represent the passing of something greater.
His generation of Frenchmen and those that followed him such as
Derrida, Foucault, and others.
In the post war period France was seized by an anti-authoritarian zeal
that is wonderfully expressed by Derrida's concept of the tyranny of
the text, and an extreme reaction to the sort of logical positivist
certainty that had justified the extreme ideologies of the early part
of the century that had enslaved the earth and occupied France.
This in turn informed the post-structualist and post-modern approaches
to social theory.
But what of now. Social theory is now emasculated by feminism, but
worst by toleration and consensus.
Any attempts at a radical approach has been muted by the tyranny of
inclusion.
That worst fear of the linguist turn and post-modernism was a hopeless
relativism has now been superseded by something much worse. Now we
have inclusiveness. History has accommodated Church History. THe
Enlightenment, once portrayed as anti-religion is now the a religious
phenomenon.
Forst we had the enlightenment - a group of French philosophers deists
and materialists. Then we had the Scottish E, then the Dutch E, then
we have the Christian E. Hume gets ejected from the Scottish E just as
Rousseau gets ejected from the French E. Then, once church history has
colonised the Enlightenment, why append the adjective Christian at
all? Now the 5 volumes of Blair's Sermons is now heralded as the
greatest achievement of the Enlightenment. So how did we get from an
atheist and deist materialist philosophy to a firebrand Calvinist
minister who rejects materialism, deism and the struggle for liberty
in the US and France - in 15 years?
It is political Correctness gone mad. Religion continues to colonise
the terminology of the past and present to justify its existence.

[ornamentalmind]

Nice to see you posting again chaz!!

> > honors from foreign universities and governments, including Brazil.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[chazwin]

Actually I have been posting a lot on alt.philosphy, atheism vs
christianity and Political Forum.
The activity on this NG is much less so don't often visit.

[archytas]

I think madness is the key word Chaz. I watched our Parliamentary
donkeys allegedly debating Nutt's sacking and could only conclude they
are sad bastards with no idea of how to listen to anyone else. I'm no
fan of structuralism or post-marxism generally, but the crap going on
now is facile. Blair is its consummate vomit, but he's surely CIA.
Feminism, racism and sexual orientationism have left sociology a non-
subject just when it's obvious liberal democratic capitalism ain't the
only game in town.

[ornamentalmind]

Ahhh! Thaks Chaz.

> > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[chazwin]

The paradox of the whole Nutt case is that far from not listening,
they have been listening to the great murmur from the British (voting)
public. What is ironic is that the anti-drugs murmur is a myth and
fiction of the establishment's own making, as they have wished to
appear strong on drugs, and the causes of drugs.
Along with that they have put in place a more liberal drinking regime,
perhaps wishing to emulate the more relaxed continental style of open
bars and stylist tables in the streets image - and in doing so have
contributed to a scandalous chav drinking culture which is getting out
of all proportion.
Few of these politicians of the left have ever had a proper job; the
ranks of the PLP have become filled with graduate politicians with
degrees in politics and media studies.
Any twat with 3 brain cells would have realised the consequences of
liberal drinking laws in the UK.

[nominal9]

Speaking of that "generation" of the French... Have you ever read
Albert Camus....especially "the RebeL"? I've tried to complete it ever
since I was a teen-ager, just never get around to it.So I read a few
chapters, then leave it for some years... then read some more...
etc.... Camus' theory on "Rebellion" isn't necessarily the main
point.... his ideas and notions regarding the philosophy of history,
in commentary of Hegel primarily, is the real crux of the discussion.
Plus, someone would need a deeper understanding of some other quoted
"historical"sources to truly appreciate the treatise. As someone
interested in history, Chaz, I think that you might like it.
nominal9

[nominal9]

Actually I have been posting a lot on alt.philosphy, atheism vs

christianity and Political Forum..../Chaz

Political Forum?.... the one that I suggested to you a while
back?..... Hell, Chaz, I got "banned" from there , myself, not too
long ago. Damned their "moderators" to an eternity in hell with their
heads up their asses and with shit for brains... relegated them to
Nominal9"s Censorship Hall of Shame.... maybe you shouildn't mention
that you know me, there.... if you like the place...
nominal 9

> > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[Timothy Monicken]

Yes, I remember his work well... he had great influence on my thinking as it concerned the field research in Cultural Anthropology. Though I felt his "binary code" primarily applied to cultural myth & perspective to be somewhat limiting, there was that element of the paradoxical tensions created when the chief elements or proponents found in the classical sets of cultural heritage came into play... " the word behind words" as Joseph Campbell may have put it. In some ways it all seems to play back into Wittgenstein.  Whatever the case, we all stand on the shoulders of pioneers, TO BE SURE.  I appreciate it when others in the group are respectful of that.  Chreodman

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 12:51 PM, nominal9 <nomi...@yahoo.com> wrote:

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE5A24HT20091103
French anthropologist Levi-Strauss dies at 100
Tue Nov 3, 2009 1:22pm EST
Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page[-] Text [+] By Estelle
Shirbon
PARIS (Reuters) - French intellectual Claude Levi-Strauss, the
founder
of structural anthropology, has died at the age of 100, his
publishing
house Plon said on Tuesday.

Levi-Strauss, who was known to a wider public thanks to his 1955
memoir and masterpiece, "Tristes Tropiques," died on Saturday. He
would have turned 101 on November 28.


"He was France's greatest scientist," said writer Jean d'Ormesson,
fellow member of the Academie Francaise which brings together the
elite of the country's intellectual establishment.

-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

[chazwin]

When I was doing archaeology I always found C Levi-S's technique of
conceptual oppositions very useful for the interpretation of building
distributions, iconography and spatiality.

[chazwin]

Camus was in the advanced guard of the French posty philosophers.
I read his Myth of Sysyphus whilst undergoing all that nasty cancer
treatment last year, and his reflections on suicide helped me prepare
myself for the worst.
I hope to revisit him soon.
6 weeks ago I signed up for an MA in Intellectual History, which I am
getting a lot out of. Today we covered Foucault. Brilliant, but I
asked whether such a genius would have gotten past his BA let alone
have a Special Chair created for him, given the current idiotic
politically correct culture now inside Universities, that has to cow-
tow to government regulations, and transferable skills and relevance
tests.

[chazwin]

Yeah I followed you recommendation to go there - thanks.
I've been busy telling idiot Americans the difference between a rights
based approach to health and they respond by participating in their
own exploitation by calling public medicine "socialist"
Blimey - banned?
I know it is moderated but you have to go the extra mile to get
banned.

[archytas]

Foucault would no doubt have gleaned his BA by using those buses on
which French radicals gave out course credits saying the credits are
real but the university imaginary. In my class I would have responded
by offering you the MA there and then as it's so damned obvious we
never fail anyone. You would be able to rejoin the course at any time
by ripping up the gleaming certificate, an interesting admission
procedure! Nominal would probably find it harder to get banned from a
British university MA than from 'alt.twatcuntdiscourse'.
ME is a much sadder place without you Chaz. Given the increase in
godswank since you were chucked it's clear you were the best moderator
in the place, working by stealth and cudgel.
Must be good to have a few critical minds about you though mate?
Having taught the shit, at least as 'research methods', I have to say
the academic well is dry. Your analysis above of the current idiots
in government is far better than we could manage held down by academic
pretensions. Something in the crap does work though Chaz, at least for
the few who don't just toss off the tutors for good marks. I like to
think I didn't ask for that, but one or two did remind me that I sort
of taught them strategies of working out what the hidden agendas were,
and consequently that they hadn't tossed me off in order to do so.

[chazwin]

On Nov 11, 10:35 am, archytas <nwte...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Foucault would no doubt have gleaned his BA by using those buses on
> which French radicals gave out course credits saying the credits are
> real but the university imaginary.  In my class I would have responded
> by offering you the MA there and then as it's so damned obvious we
> never fail anyone.

Okay let us accept that F might have got his BA on the basis that they
fail no one these days. I was wrong. However, given the state of the
establishment's grip on the balls of free-thinking and radical, new
and novel ideas F would not now have been given a position of power
inside a university. Neither would Chomsky or any thinker whose urge
it might be to refrain from supporting the status quo.
The top rung of the university ladder is moribund, ossified and its
noses are brown - by sniffing the gravy train.

 You would be able to rejoin the course at any time
> by ripping up the gleaming certificate, an interesting admission
> procedure!  Nominal would probably find it harder to get banned from a
> British university MA than from 'alt.twatcuntdiscourse'.
> ME is a much sadder place without you Chaz.  Given the increase in
> godswank since you were chucked it's clear you were the best moderator
> in the place, working by stealth and cudgel.

Thanks. But sometimes you just need to let rip. I also managed to get
busted out of alt. atheists and freethinkers too - by a stupid bitch
called 'Trance Gemini" on a "debate" concerning the death penalty.
Obviously freethinking is not the same as free speech.

> Must be good to have a few critical minds about you though mate?
> Having taught the shit, at least as 'research methods', I have to say
> the academic well is dry.  Your analysis above of the current idiots
> in government is far better than we could manage held down by academic
> pretensions. Something in the crap does work though Chaz, at least for
> the few who don't just toss off the tutors for good marks.  I like to
> think I didn't ask for that, but one or two did remind me that I sort
> of taught them strategies of working out what the hidden agendas were,
> and consequently that they hadn't tossed me off in order to do so.

I am in a bit of a dilemma at the moment. I had every intention of
finding an interesting topic for a thesis whilst on my MA, but have
been shocked by how 'establishment' most of the tutors are in the
Dept, led by a sever Scandinavian who hob nobs with Divinity
Professors as they re-write the Scottish Enlightenment to serve the
status quo.
Right now Foucault seems attractive because he seems to realise that
history is not a seemless ribbon of learning and light but has
irruptions and breaks. It can be understood by power relations,
exploitations and conflicts.
My dilemma is that I do not think they are ready to allow for radical
re-rhinking of their precious cosy topic. It is early says though and
I am still hoping they might be better than they look.

[archytas]

I honestly suspect business schools were more radical 20 years ago
than the whole academy now. We are 100 years after Veblen though and
much more distanced from Nietzsche's 'On Truth and Lies in a Moral
Sense' - which he kept secret. Bachelard is under-used here in the
'rupture tradition'. I'd guess none of the kind of people you
describe will have heard of the work of Joseph Sneed, Günther Ludwig,
and Erhard Scheibe; or Bourbaki sets. And also that they ooze Kuhn,
paradigms and root metaphors. And no doubt you'll be up to your arse
in the quadri-hermeneutic.
The following is filched from 'Philosophy of History' in Stanford
Encyclopaedia of Philosophy online. It obviously tells you nothing I
haven't heard you say. I'd just offer it with the question 'what the
fuck would we make of academe now under even this apparently benign
heuristic'?

'Finally, a new philosophy of history will be sensitive to the variety
of forms of presentation of historical knowledge. The discipline of
history consists of many threads, including causal explanation,
material description, and narrative interpretation of human action.
Historical narrative itself has several aspects: a hermeneutic story
that makes sense of a complicated set of actions by different actors,
but also a causal story conveying a set of causal mechanisms that came
together to bring about an outcome. But even more importantly, not all
historical knowledge is expressed in narratives. Rather, there is a
range of cognitive structures through which historical knowledge is
expressed, from detailed measurement of historical standards of
living, to causal arguments about population change, to comparative
historical accounts of similar processes in different historical
settings. A new philosophy of history will take the measure of
synchronous historical writing; historical writing that conveys a
changing set of economic or structural circumstances; writing that
observes the changing characteristics of a set of institutions;
writing that records and analyzes a changing set of beliefs and
attitudes in a population; and many other varieties as well. These are
important features of the structure of historical knowledge, not
simply aspects of the rhetoric of historical writing'.

We might also wonder what the plain English of this is and how we
taught some version of it. I could say 'I told you so mate' - but you
can be assured I won't. I haven't seen an genuine innovation in
academe outside laboratory and mathematical puzzle solving in a long
time. Sue always regarded academics as smug bastards not far removed
from the political scum only fit to vomit on in torrents of gut felt
swearing, and this only at most. I sailed a bit closer to the wind
than that. You could sort of expect to find someone not too bothered
if they could catch your drift. Now I suspect they are all too thick,
products of the pathetic dilution themselves. I'm off to Cameroon
again, by the way.

> ...
>
> read more »

[Timothy Monicken]

Yes, Chazwin, there is that... and, I have also found 1:1 correspondence within cultural systems boundedness as it relates to Levi-S's treatment of imagery created, perceived realities, the inherent symbolism, together with the symptomatic aspects of the continued dialogue that ensues from those interpretations. When this is done within the adopted methodology, it can assure for a comprehensive psycho-somatic mapping of the culture's rationalities, the connections to media & environment, methods used in specific circumstances, and the various populations' (being studied) teleological referencing, respectively. All of this kind of takes me back to a book form the 70's entitled "Pig, Wars, & Witches." 
Moreover, IF the aforementioned mythological concerns are treated as attending cultural attributes in which essential needs are met, that inherent "binary code" which Levi-S was so able to convey, can then be viewed as indicative of universal dynamics, interposed to create a kind of "reciprocal remediation repertoire," or reflexive, compensatory capacities within the cultural dialogue. Mythology in general is then seen a cultural response (or device) employed to manage those inherent tensions that all connections/relationships/attributes create... complexities aside, the subsequent mapping of a more reliable "impact matrix" is more easily derived.  Of course, after these "connections" become "apparent," it all then seems rather prima facie in its "scope & applicability."  Ah, the sweet underpinnings of the contextual backdrop... but archetypal patterns are like that: they forever remind us of the common threads that run through our humanity.

[Georges Metanomski]

Hi Neil,
You throw names about like shit, trying to hit the fan. Why the hell
should one hear about Bourbaki sets? It's bullshit, like all failed
trials to found maths in discreteness, only more conceited.
Same for others, with exception of Bachelard, who came here astray
and whom you don't seem to understand.

Say that established education is bullshit; that one has to earn
his three meals, so you teach bullshit which yourself you don't
understand, as there is nothing there to understand - and I'll say that
you are sincere.

Else I don't say anything and wish you lots of fun.

Georges.

--- On Wed, 11/11/09, archytas <nwt...@googlemail.com> wrote:

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>

[chazwin]

I'll try to duck the shit storm of names that have hit GMeta's
metaphorical fan as I have not heard of any of them.
The thing that has pissed me off this week is the colonization by the
Christian right (tautology?) of the word "Enlightenment". This once
characterized the French Philosophes of the 18thC, in the 1960s, it
was anti-religion, Deist, Atheist, mechanist, materialist. Since then
we have political correctness and inclusion. The first step in
colonization and misappropriation of 'enlightenment' was extending it
to associate it with the 18thC, this was the error of the people that
gave us the caricature above, then it invited a diaspora: Dutch E,
German E, Scottish E. Now it can happily include Hume and Liebniz. The
original E now becomes marginalised as French, But wait - we now have
a Jewish, then a Christian E. After a year of two of describing as a
Xian E - what is in effect a counter Enlightenment, the Proffesors of
Divinity now characterize the Calvinistic sermons of the mis 18thC as
"the greatest influntial achievements of the Enlightenment" - the
colonization of the word is now complete by simply dropping the
adjective Xian. If challenged they can claim they are talking about
the historical period. What they have really achieved in the eyes of
the followers is an aggressive take-over with the result that the
Enlightenment is now anti-deist, anti-atheist, anti-materialist, and
against the struggle for liberty in france and america.
Maybe Hitchens and Dawkins are right - maybe we do live in a world
where PC have given religion a free pass- beyond critique or ridicule?

I can't disagree with Stanford as they are allowing for a range of
methodologies, but what I would like to rail against is that this
statement is masking something much worse. the permissiveness of false
agendas, and the obscene unfettered relativism that does not even
allow us to dust the balls of the rapist when what we need to do is
cut them off. PC has allowed rapists' balls to be reattached.

> ...
>
> read more »

[archytas]

We used to be able to teach in a much less bookish way. I don't
insist on books much and tend to trash the textbooks. One wants to
encourage people to experiment with ideas and at least look at a few
examples of thinking beyond common sense. I got hold of a book called
'The Critique of Pure Verbosity' once, but it was a disappointment -
needless to say verbose. Facts have ceased to matter. Rape is a
classic example. We never discuss the actual offences. Research is
conducted by people chosen by people with no clue about what really
needs doing and what impartiality is. Much of it is loony. The days
of a George turning up in his just made suit and being summed up and
given a job are long gone.

> ...
>
> read more »

[chazwin]

Well Kant is vary verbose. I am told he comes across just as bad in
the original German. If you read his other stuff, he uses plain
speech. It seems that for generation when philosophers do their opus
magnum they are compelled to exclude most readers, leaving only the
anoraks. Hume does exactly the sam job as Kant but without the jargon.
But even Hume was embarrassed by his early Treatise, and wrote the
Enquiry which had more content with half the words.

It seems to be the month of White-Wash. TOny is getting his dirty
laundry washed for free, and will come out of this enquiry looking
whiter than white, whilst the Catholic boy buggering wankers are
getting their sins removed with a wave of a cheque book.

> ...
>
> read more »

[archytas]

Couldn't agree more - these enquiries are Blott on the Landscape. I
have at least triumphed in disabling my capslock key!

> ...
>
> read more »

[chazwin]

I find pressing it works

> ...
>
> read more »

[archytas]

The bastard was responsible for 90% of my typos. Now I can hit it as
often as I like without ending up re-writing. Of course, I had to
bribe the whole Belgian Government to do this! I still hold out a
little hope that such 'roadblocks' are what stop was getting a half-
way decent society. I'm working on a similar fix for politicians and
religionists.

> ...
>
> read more »

[chazwin]

My advice; buy a Mac!
I have decided since last year that life is far too short to keep
mucking around with PCs.
I'm fed up with compatibility issues; resorting to the screwdriver to
get inside the back of my computers; waiting for the bloody thing to
boot up; and dealing with computer crashes.
I have had a Mac for 10 weeks, and it has never crashed. I have used
to daily. I rarely shut it down, I just close the lid. When I want to
use it I flip the lid, press the space and it is up and ready in under
3 seconds.

Chaz

> ...
>
> read more »

[archytas]

I must admit I'm amazed at what can go wrong. Windows is definitely
some kind of CIA-backed crap. It makes no sense that an OS so shit is
the market leader without some kind of interference to make this so.
No one can explain to me what advantages any systems later than XP
possess other than touchscreen in 7. I have to run 64 bit stuff for
some calculation stuff I do and some experimental voice to text. Naff
all seems compatible with this, even some bits of Office. This said,
there wouldn't be much point in me doing stuff on a MAC for eventual
use on PCs! My old Ericsson 128 running DOS would still do most of
what I need (from 1982). Hey fucking ho!