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From Lévi-Strauss to Wittgenstein: The Idea of ‘Imperfectionism’ in Anthropology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Francesco Remotti
Francesco Remotti*
Affiliation:
University of Turin, Italy
*
Francesco Remotti, University of Turin, Via Giuseppe Verdi, 8, Torino, Italy. Email: francesco.remotti@unito.it
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Abstract

According to the author, the most important lesson of Claude Lévi-Strauss at the epistemological level is the interpretation of anthropology as a transversal knowledge: its innovative definition of structure goes in this direction. The failure of its structuralism is however due to a strong and intolerable reduction of the wealth of aspects and dimensions of the ethnographic experience and the purpose to predispose a frame of limited possibilities (closed system). The author proposes to rehabilitate the thesis of anthropology as a transversal (cross-cultural) knowledge resorting to Wittgenstein's idea of family resemblances: a flexible approach (open system) that fits the needs and characteristics of anthropological research.

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Articles
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Diogenes , Volume 60 , Issue 2: Homage to Claude Lévi-Strauss , May 2013 , pp. 40 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2015

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