Introduction

Les Structures élémentaires de la parenté, by Claude Lévi-Strauss,

has acquired the stature o f a classic in social anthropology. In the

present monograph I wish to examine its scientific claims to this

reputation. Lévi-Strauss’s work is considered a remarkable feat o f analysis

not only by social anthropologists, but also by a surprising num ber

o f writers in other fields. T o cite the opinion of one o f the most prominent modern psychologists, for Piaget the anthropological structuralism o f L évi-Strauss ‘presents an exem plary character

and constitutes the m ost striking model - neither functional nor

genetic nor historical, but deductive - that has been em ployed in

an empirical human science’ (Piaget 1968: 90). F or Boudon, similarly, Lévi-Strauss’s treatment o f marriage rules constitutes

an ‘exact’ , ‘general’ , ‘falsifiable’ theory (1968: 203), and the

‘scientific importance’ o f Lévi-Strauss’s ‘discoveries’ in anthro­ pology needs no further demonstration (1968: 10).