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From Lévi-Strauss to Wittgenstein: The Idea of ‘Imperfectionism’ in Anthropology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
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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