Elementary Structures of Kinship, The / Les structures Élémentaires de la Parenté

Abstract

First published in 1949, The Elementary Structures of Kinship , by French anthropologist Claude Lévi‐Strauss, provided a new perspective on kinship systems and relationships. Lévi‐Strauss explains that humans left the state of animality to enter culture through the prohibition of incest. Instead of marrying their mother, sister, or daughter, men exchanged them to other groups, following the positive rule of exogamy. Elementary structures are characterized by both negative and positive rules of alliance, while complex structures only formulate negative rules and leave it to elements outside the realm of kinship to guide marriage. Exchange can be symmetrical and restricted (two groups in mutual‐exchange relations) or asymmetrical and generalized (in larger populations). The book created a major breakthrough in studies of kinship and was seminal for what became known as structuralism, but it also received much criticism: the ahistorical approach of a model at odds with people's experiences was deemed androcentric and formalist.