Structuralism
By Fatima and Joshua
Claude Levi-Strauss
Linguistics and Anthropology
The Relationship Between Language and Culture
The Relationship Between 
Language and Culture
Relationship as a Human Phenomenon
The various levels
Individual cultural ramifications of the relationship
Two Critical Facts:
Language is the means thru which culture is transmitted
Both Language and Culture are visible manifestations of the same underlying processes
Linguistics is the most scientific Social Science
Study the Culture Know the Language
Some Marxist influence
Society is a manifestation of the patterns that ultimately reside in the Human Mind
Kinship Systems
Indo-European
Sino-Tibetan
Sherry Ortner
Four Winnebago Myths
Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture? 
Marriage Rules
Social Organization
Kinship System
Circular systems, either resulting directly from explicit rules or indirectly from the fact that the choice of a mate is left to probability.
Numerous social units, with a complex structure (extended family types)
(1) Subjective
(2) Few Terms
Circular systems, present in juxtaposition with systems of symmetrical exchange
Few social units, with a simple structure (clan or lineage type)
(1) Objective
(2) Many Terms
Based on Radin's ethnographic work of the Winnebago
These myths can be grouped together because their are of the same genre
They Complement each other
The Two Friends who became Reincarnated: The origin of the four night's wake
Every individual is entitled to a specific quota of years in life and experience.
If an individual dies before his time, his unutilized years of life can be recycled and returned to the "capital" of life
Full Life
Full Death
Reincarnation
Half-life, Half-death
Opposition
      (1) Heroic Life (renewable, shortened life)
      (2) Ordinary Life (non renewable, full life) E.G. Achilles

1 Full life = 1Full Death, "If one renounces life and seeks death, one increases the life of his tribesmen"
The Man who brought his wife back from Spiritland
The Journey of the Ghost to Spiritland,
as told in the Medicine Rite
Immune to death, mithraditized, renouncing a full ordinary life to gain a lifelong succession of half-lives and half-deaths
How an Orphan Restored the Chief's Daughter to Life
Village origin myth altered beyond recognition
Theoretical problem, dissimilar to the other three
Reflects a stratified society
Social Positions and Natural Positions shift drastically
The four myths deal with extraordinary in opposition to ordinary

Fourth myth deals with material trials
Sino-Tibetan
Indo-European
In Conclusion...
Myth 1
Myth 2
Myth 3
Myth 4
The degree to which Language is separable from Culture
The relationship between Language and Culture as a whole, not just singularly
Relationship between
Linguistics and Anthropologists
And...
Importance of Silence
Cultural Attitudes Towards Language
Anthropologists should be envious

Before Ethnographic work
Linguistics can be used to analyze culture because they are the result of the same mental processes
Female
Male
Nature
Culture
Universal Gender Asymmetry
Problem:
MEN
women
Why is it that the position a woman holds varies from culture to culture,
but women are universally held in a lower regard
Physiologically oriented
Physiologically oriented
Biological make up imposes Social roles and psychic structure
Biologically freed up to influence Culture
Creates Perishable Human Beings
Mother-Infant Bond
1) Breast-feeding
2) Reproduction
Based on Arbitrary Assumptions
Has Modern Society lessened the Bond between Mother and Child?
Create lasting
Material Culture
Limited to no
bond with infant,
No Physiological
 bond
Levels of Asymmetry
1) Universally, women have a second class status

2) Ideologies, Symbolizations, and socio-structural arrangements vary from culture to culture
3) Observed activities, contributions, powers, influence, etcetera, of women
>
MEN
women
VS.
...Even in our
Mythic Past
In Recent History...
Check Her Mad Skills!!
Digression Alert:
First Lady of the 
USA
W
W
C
oman
ashing
lothes
Muslim Woman Stoned for Alleged Adultry
Woman Wearing Hijab
Sandra Bullock
Queen Mother
Elizabeth Taylor
The Indominable
Vodou Priestess
Madame Secretary
Hillary Clinton
Great Britain's
Can You Say Feminist Anthopology?
Marx
Stalin
Mao
Assumes that Biology and Psychology force females into a more "Nature Oriented" manner
Women are "more enslaved to the spacies" 
- De Beauvoir
Ortner ignores instances that could invalidate the premise of this work. e.g., " in nature hunting and killing" could put men closer to nature 
Ortner uses Tylor's less favored definition of culture (arts, laws, morals, etc.) as opposed to Boas'
In Conclusion, Ortner states that this is a construct of Culture rather than a fact of Nature.
Women are closer to culture when enculturating Children