Abstract:
The paper address the complexity of the status of the conceptual pair nature and culture in Lévi-Strauss' thought. At the same time analysis tool, early philosophical scene and antinomy to be overcome, one revisits different uses and meanings in Lévi-Strauss' work of the concept of nature and its relationship with the one of culture. It is shown how it is possible to recognize in Lévi-Strauss' work two concepts of nature: on the one hand, a nature that is opposite to culture in a scientific program classically formulated in a dualistic way and, on the other, a decidedly monistic theory of knowledge that considers the spirit as part and product of this same world. It is argued that if dualism between culture and nature founded the structuralist thought of Lévi-Strauss, it is in his own work that one finds the arguments and means to overcome it. The vocation of structuralism in current anthropology, however, is to go further than its founder.
Keywords:
Lévi-Strauss; Nature; Culture; Nature and culture dualism; Structuralism