Claude levi strauss binary opposites

Claude Levi Strauss was an anthropologist and ethnologist, also known as father of modern anthropology. He applied and popularized the idea of Binary opposites, deriving it from Ferdinand de Saussure's Structuralism.

1. Binary Opposites Claude Levi Strauss BIPUL NATH

2. Introduction Claude Levi Strauss (28Nov , 1908-30Oct, 2009) was a Belgian born French anthropologist and ethnologist, whose work was key development in structural anthropology. He is also referred to as the father of modern anthropology.

3. Binary Opposites Levi Strauss proposed the idea of Binary Opposites. which simply refers to two contrasting concepts existing opposite each other. Levi Strauss noticed that binary opposites form the basic structure of narratives; a narrative is a spoken or written account of connected events; a story. His idea of binary opposite is an extension that he draws from Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory of structuralism. Binary opposite initially comes into the scene with Ferdinand de Saussure. Saussure- the father of structuralism. Structuralism deals with the study of language and its structure. Saussure talks about Sign, Signifier and Signified. Saussure suggests that binary opposites are inherent in linguistic structures. Levi Strauss drew this concept and employed it in his study of anthropology, which is the study of cultures and people. Levis Strauss found that Binary opposites are also inherent in cultures because language and culture are intrinsically connected to each other.

4. So what is binary opposites? Binary opposites simply means -- It is a pair of related terms or concepts that have contrasting meanings. For example- Good vis -a- vis Evil, White vis -a- vis Black. Some other examples are - More vis -a- vis Less, High vis -a- vis Low, Hot vis -a- vis Cold, Virtue vis-a-vis Vice, Moral vis-a-vis Immoral, etc.

5. Contd … Levi Strauss found that binary opposite reflects its meaning through narratives. I t draws its meaning from mythology. For instance binaries like- Good - Evil, Moral-Immoral, Tall-Short, Strong-Weak, etc have a mythological origin. T hese narratives through, social processes and social interaction, assign meanings to these terms For example through economic, cultural, political interactions , religious superstitions. God symbolizes Good, conversely Satan symbolizes Evil, David symbolizes Courage and Goliath symbolizes arrogance. There are many such cultural narratives where we find these binary opposites reflected. T hus it has a civilizational origin, which is why the binary opposites differ across cultures .

6. Contd … Saussure stated, that the relation between the binaries are not contradictory, but structural , complementary one. Meaning that one doesn’t make the other disappear, Rather One establishes itself in relation to the other. Saussure demonstrates that a sign’s meaning is derived from its context and the group to which it belongs.

7. Contd … Binary opposites are complementary Because the meaning of Good is derived by establishing meaning of Bad. Structuralism states that we derive meaning by drawing difference among objects . Thus we know about one binary in relation to the other. Imagine if everyone was Strong , how would we know what is meant by weak? We know strong because we have seen some one weaker than the Strong that we know.

8. One Binary dominates over the other For example, Good and Bad are two binary opposites. So One binary opposite will gain dominance over the other. For instance Universally we consider Good over Bad. We put emphasis on all the Good things and simply rule out the bad ones. Because good plays a dominance over Bad. Good is God and we pray to God, we don’t pray to Evil, which is bad.

9. Conclusion To put it simply binary opposites are basically [Adjectives] qualities, like Strong/weak, white/black, tall/short , more/less , etc. However there are some other [noun] and [verb] binary opposites, such as Laugh/Cry , Stop/Move , Asleep/Awake , Boy/Girl , Man/Woman , etc.