Lévi-Strauss’s deep structure decouples meaning from observable social relations
Evidence
By “structure” classical Social Anthropology understood the observable structures—the institutional orders—of a society. In Lé vi-Strauss, the term is closer to the “deep-structure”: it means the underlying system of relations between terms, conceptualized on the model of a language. There was no longer any one-to-one, simple correlation between these two levels—the order of classification and meaning, and the order of “real relations.” The two had to be conceived as articulated through some relation other than that of reflection or correspondence, or even simple analogy. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 358
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Defines the crucial shift from ‘structure’ as institutional order to ‘deep-structure’ as a language-modeled system of relations — a key technical concept.
- XREF: The word ‘articulated’ is a telling choice — Hall’s own theory of articulation later reworks this same decoupling between meaning and real relations.
Related
- Levi-Strauss redefined structure from observable institutions to deep underlying relations modeled on language. (similarity 0.83)
- Meaning and social relations form not sequentially but through structural articulation within a whole (similarity 0.82)
- Social relations can be analyzed purely as formal configurations (similarity 0.80)
- Social structures are objectivated meanings built through inter-subjective exchange (similarity 0.78)
- Levi-Strauss’s structuralism holds that science explains by reducing apparent reality to hidden underlying structure. (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Luhmann’s systems are not naturalistic people-networks but self-referential communicative processes
#expands(0.78) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 18