The Structural Study of Totemism
E678763
The Structural Study of Totemism is a key essay by Claude Lévi-Strauss in which he analyzes totemic systems through structuralist methods to reveal underlying patterns of human thought and social organization.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Structural Study of Totemism canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7631371 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Structural Study of Totemism Context triple: [Structural Anthropology, hasPart, The Structural Study of Totemism]
-
A.
Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies
Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies is a landmark anthropological study by Margaret Mead that examines gender roles and cultural variation through fieldwork in three New Guinea societies.
-
B.
The History of Ethnological Theory
The History of Ethnological Theory is a seminal anthropological work that surveys and critically analyzes the development of ethnological thought and schools of theory up to the early 20th century.
-
C.
Myth, Ritual and Religion
Myth, Ritual and Religion is a seminal two-volume anthropological and folkloric study by Andrew Lang that examines the origins, functions, and comparative patterns of myths and religious practices across cultures.
-
D.
Primitive Culture
Primitive Culture is an 1871 anthropological work by Edward B. Tylor that introduced key concepts such as cultural evolution and the theory of animism in the study of human societies.
-
E.
Anthropology (1923)
Anthropology (1923) is a foundational textbook by Alfred L. Kroeber that systematically surveys the field of anthropology and helped shape its development in the early 20th century.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Structural Study of Totemism Target entity description: The Structural Study of Totemism is a key essay by Claude Lévi-Strauss in which he analyzes totemic systems through structuralist methods to reveal underlying patterns of human thought and social organization.
-
A.
Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies
Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies is a landmark anthropological study by Margaret Mead that examines gender roles and cultural variation through fieldwork in three New Guinea societies.
-
B.
The History of Ethnological Theory
The History of Ethnological Theory is a seminal anthropological work that surveys and critically analyzes the development of ethnological thought and schools of theory up to the early 20th century.
-
C.
Myth, Ritual and Religion
Myth, Ritual and Religion is a seminal two-volume anthropological and folkloric study by Andrew Lang that examines the origins, functions, and comparative patterns of myths and religious practices across cultures.
-
D.
Primitive Culture
Primitive Culture is an 1871 anthropological work by Edward B. Tylor that introduced key concepts such as cultural evolution and the theory of animism in the study of human societies.
-
E.
Anthropology (1923)
Anthropology (1923) is a foundational textbook by Alfred L. Kroeber that systematically surveys the field of anthropology and helped shape its development in the early 20th century.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
anthropological work
ⓘ
essay ⓘ structuralist text ⓘ |
| academicDiscipline | human sciences ⓘ |
| addresses |
binary oppositions in thought
ⓘ
classification of species in social systems ⓘ relationship between nature and culture ⓘ |
| aimsTo |
reinterpret the concept of totemism
ⓘ
reveal universal patterns of human thought ⓘ |
| analyzes |
relations between humans and animals in belief systems
ⓘ
systems of classification ⓘ totemic systems ⓘ |
| argues |
totemic phenomena express underlying cognitive structures
ⓘ
totemism is a mode of classification rather than a distinct institution ⓘ |
| author | Claude Lévi-Strauss NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | France ⓘ |
| critiques |
earlier evolutionary theories of totemism
ⓘ
functional interpretations of totemism ⓘ |
| field |
anthropology
ⓘ
social anthropology ⓘ structural anthropology ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
social organization
ⓘ
symbolic classification ⓘ underlying structures of thought ⓘ |
| genre | theoretical essay ⓘ |
| hasPerspective | comparative ⓘ |
| influenced |
anthropological theories of classification
ⓘ
later structuralist analyses of myth ⓘ symbolic anthropology ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Durkheimian sociology
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
structural linguistics ⓘ |
| keyConcept |
structural homologies between social and natural orders
ⓘ
symbolic mediation between humans and animals ⓘ totemic classification ⓘ |
| language | French ⓘ |
| mainTopic | totemism ⓘ |
| partOf | Claude Lévi-Strauss's structuralist project ⓘ |
| publicationCentury | 20th century ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
The Savage Mind
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Totemism (by Claude Lévi-Strauss) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| status |
influential essay in 20th-century anthropology
ⓘ
key text in structural anthropology ⓘ |
| theoreticalApproach | structuralism ⓘ |
| usesMethod |
cross-cultural comparison
ⓘ
structural analysis of symbolic systems ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Structural Study of Totemism Description of subject: The Structural Study of Totemism is a key essay by Claude Lévi-Strauss in which he analyzes totemic systems through structuralist methods to reveal underlying patterns of human thought and social organization.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.