Understanding Structuralism in Social Sciences
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ScribdTranslationsStructuralism
Structuralism is a theoretical movement that began in France.
mid-1960s, especially in the field of sciences
humanities and social sciences. The works that are grouped under the name of
"Structuralism" is characterized by considering that language has a
key function in the development of human activity and its functions.
This movement has had significant repercussions at both theoretical and practical levels.
in disciplines such as linguistics, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy. To
Next, we will review the main ideas of Structuralism and
how it has impacted the social sciences.
What is Structuralism?
Structuralism is a theoretical and methodological approach that posits that in everything
In the sociocultural system, there is a series of structures (forms of organization) that
they condition or determine everything that happens within that system.
Thus, what Structuralism specifically studies are those structures, not
Nevertheless, from this point on, it becomes inevitable to analyze the connection between them, it is
to say, how they shape different sociocultural systems and activity
humana.
Characteristicsofstructuralism
Structuralism is characterized by the following:
It suggests that everything is composed of structures, and that the way in which the
we organize thehuman beings, they are what produces the sense and meaning of
things. It also suggests that the structures determine the position of the
elements within the system, and that these structures, furthermore, underlie,
they are found beneath what is apparent.
Therefore, the structuralist method is the one that starts in search of said
invisible structures, to bring them to light and explain how the system operates
what is inside the object of study.
Almost any analysis that pursues the
underlying structures of a human phenomenon.
Structuralism was an extremely useful tool during the 20th century in
the development of social sciences.
It gave rise to specific schools of thought within thelinguistics,
psychology, literature, anthropologysociology, among other disciplines.
Representativesofstructuralism
Two authors are considered central in the constitution of structuralism and
They also serve, therefore, as examples of the implementation of these.
concepts: the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) and the anthropologist
French Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009).
Ferdinand de Saussure became famous for his Course in Linguistics
general(1916), a posthumous publication resulting from his years ofteachingsuperior
in Paris, and laid the foundation stone for structural linguistics, which is
how today we know the first modern linguistics. In it, the central
system that Saussure proposes for thinking about language, constituted from
meaning and the signifier, the two parts of every sign, inseparable, opposite and
complementary.
Claude Lévi-Strauss is much later and became a central figure in his
discipline in the mid-20th century, as the founder of structural anthropology,
whose foundations were based on what was developed earlier by Saussure and by the
Russian formalism school (specifically, by Roman Jakobson). It was famous.
onthesisabout the 'elementary structures of kinship', first successful attempt
to apply structuralist thinking to the anthropological field
Bibliographic references:
Culler, J. (2018). Structuralism. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Thematic. DOI 0.4324/9780415249126-N055-1.
Theodore, S. (2018). Structuralism in social science. Routledge
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Thematic. DOI 10.4324/9780415249126-
R036-1.
The Basics of Philosophy. (2008-2018). Structuralism. The Basics of
Philosophy. Retrieved May 11. Available at
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