Althusser’s theory of ideology derives from Lévi-Strauss’s unconscious cultural categories.

Evidence

In one of Althusser’s seminal formulations about ideology—defined as the themes, concepts, and representations through which men and women “live,” in an imaginary relation, their relation to their real conditions of existence—we can see the skeleton outline of Lé vi-Strauss’s “conceptual schemes between praxis and practices.” “Ideologies” are here being conceptualized, not as the contents and surface forms of ideas, but as the unconscious categories through which conditions are represented and lived. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 194

Categorization

• XREF: Shows the intellectual lineage connecting structuralist anthropology to Marxist ideology theory.
• DEFINE: Defines Althusser’s ideology as unconscious categories, not surface ideas.