ABSTRACT
The problems in Les Structures élémentaires de la parenté start with the very definition of what it is about. Although the presentation of the elementary-complex typology in the first edition of the book was quite clear in stating the sort of closed systems Lévi-Strauss was concerned with, later publications and the author's preface to the second edition made the question obscure. We have had to demonstrate (chapter 3) that Leach is right in saying that ‘as time goes on, it becomes increasingly difficult to understand just what Lévi-Strauss really means by “elementary structures” ‘ (Leach 1969a: 105).
