I 70
Terms/Lévi-Strauss: The terms (in the divinatory system) never have an immanent meaning; their meaning is connected with the "position", is on the one hand function of history and the cultural framework and on the other hand function of the structure of the system in which they are to be used.
I 71
Order/System/Lévi-Strauss: in a system (looked at here) there are e.g. two axes, which differentiates colours on the one hand according to relatively bright and relatively dark, on the other hand according to whether they belong to fresh or dried plants.
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Structure/Lévi-Strauss, >
System/Lévi-Strauss, >
Order/Lévi-Strauss.
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Example of a more complex classification: (the languages of Australian tribes of the Kimberley contain nominal classes): here there are three successive divisions: a) of things and living beings, b) of living beings into reasonable and unreasonable, c) of reasonable living beings into male and female ones.
N.B.: Languages that have lost classes may combine animals and manufactured objects into one group.
(1).
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Classification/Lévi-Strauss.
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For example, the tribe of the Osage does not directly call the eagle, but rather depending on the circumstances different species, of which there are again young and old and different colour specimens.
This three-dimensional matrix, a real system by means of an animal and not the animal itself, forms the object of thought and provides the conceptual tool. A native reports: "We do not believe that our ancestors really were quadrupeds, these things are just symbols of something higher.
(2)
1. A. Capell, "Language and World View in the Northern Kimberly, W. Australia" in: Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, vol 16, No. 1 Albuquerque 1960.
2. J. O. Dorsey,"Osage tradition", 6th Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington D. C., 1897