Claude Lévi-Strauss Today

Guess Editor: Dr. Şeyda Sevde Tunçbilek

Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009), the founder of structural anthropology, is regarded as one of the most influential social scientists of the 20th century. In 1960, he established the Social Anthropology Laboratory (Laboratoire d’anthropologie sociale) and the review l’Homme at the Collège de France. He was subsequently elected as a member of the Académie française in 1974 and awarded the Legion of Honour in 1985. In a survey conducted by Lire, one of France’s leading literary magazines, after Sartre’s death in 1980, Lévi-Strauss was voted the most influential figure in French intellectual life. By applying the structural method to anthropology, Lévi-Strauss influenced not only anthropologists such as Philippe Descola, Françoise Héritier and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, but also many social scientists from various disciplines, including Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Roland Barthes and Pierre Bourdieu.

The intellectual influence of Lévi-Strauss extends beyond France, the discipline of anthropology and the period in which he lived. After he passed away in 2009, research into his œuvre continued, resulting in the publication of biographies, special journal issues, dictionaries, and editions which brought together previously published correspondences and articles in different reviews. The work of Lévi-Strauss continues to be a topic of discussion, analysis and writing today. Because the issues he highlighted and the perspectives he put forth retain their significance and relevance in the context of understanding and explaining the contemporary world. Moreover, his works are no longer only analyzed in the context of kinship structures, marriage and exchange regimes, totemism and myth analysis, but are now considered from different angles and in different contexts to think about the problems of the modern world.

From this point that Istanbul University Journal of Sociology is revisiting Lévi-Strauss’ work, his intellectual legacy and his influence on the present-day with a special issue. In this Special Issue titled “Claude Lévi-Strauss Today”, we aim to bring to the spotlight the aspects that make Lévi-Strauss contemporary and the unexplored potentials in his works, and to introduce a social scientist who has been neglected in Turkish social sciences for many years for various reasons.

In light of the preceding remarks, we propose the following topics for consideration:

- Lévi-Strauss’ intellectual legacy
- Lévi-Strauss in the Turkish social sciences
- The discussion of structuralism in Turkey
- Sociological perspective on structural anthropology
- The latest approaches and tendencies in structural theory
- The place of the politics in Lévi-Strauss thought
- Lévi-Strauss and cities
- Reconsideration of the distinction between nature and culture: Lévi-Strauss in ecology debates
- Pandemics in the Anthropocene
- Cross-cultural relations and racism
These titles are only suggestions, and our journal is open to the suggestions and contributions of researchers from different disciplines. We are looking forward to your review articles, theoretical and research articles, book reviews, etc. for the Special Issue on “Claude Lévi-Strauss Today”, which is planned to be published in June 2025.

About Istanbul University Journal of Sociology

Istanbul University Journal of Sociology is published by the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Letters, Istanbul University, which was founded in 1914, and has made significant contributions to the development of sociology as a scientific discipline in Turkey. Istanbul University Journal of Sociology, the first issue of which was published in 1917, is a peer-reviewed academic journal published biannually and indexed in the Web of Science Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) and TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM TR-Dizin (For more information, see https://iupress.istanbul.edu.tr/tr/journal/iusd/home).

About Article Submission

Submissions will be accepted in Turkish, English or French via https://iupress.istanbul.edu.tr/tr/journal/iusd/information/yazim-kurallari until March 1, 2025. For questions to the editors, please contact sevdetuncbilek@istanbul.edu.tr. For technical questions, please email sosyolojidergi@istanbul.edu.tr.