Structuralism and Claude Levi Strauss

Claude Lévi-Strauss is the best known and most influential structuralist. Because of his influence, Lévi-Strauss is an excellent example of structuralist approaches. The main influence on the work Lévi-Strauss' work is multifaceted and that he was influenced not only by other anthropologists but also by linguists, geologists and others. Lévi-Strauss brings into anthropology these and other influences which have shaped his thinking and anthropological thought through his work. The main aspects of Lévi-Strauss' work can be summarized under three headings, they are:
a)    Alliance Theory
Lévi-Strauss' theoretical contributions to social anthropology are numerous and significant. The best known of these is "alliance theory." Alliance theory stresses the importance of marriage in society as opposed to the importance of descent. Its basic supposition is that the exchange of women between groups of related men results in greater social solidarity, and that the result of this cohesion is better chances of survival for all members of the resultant kin group. Lévi-Strauss' claims that the regulating of marriages through prescription and preference and the proscription of other types of marriage creates a "exchange" of women in simple societies. This interchange, accompanied by exchanges of gifts, ensures the cooperation of the members of these groups.
His analysis of the incest taboo is fascinating. For Lévi-Strauss the link between nature and culture in humankind comes from this universal proscription. In the incest taboo nature transcends itself and creates culture as the controlling element of human behavior. Sex and other drives are regulated by culture, man has become a cultural entity.
b)    Human Mental Processes
There is unity in the way the human mind functions. Lévi-Strauss claims that, although the manifestations may be very different, the human mental processes are the same in all cultures. The unity of the mental processes results from the biology of the human brain and the way it works. As a result of this unity, e.g. the classification of the universe by "primitive man" has the same basis as when it is done by any group, it is done through models. The fact that resultant models of this classification may be different is irrelevant for him. The analysis of myth in Lévi-Strauss is also based on the premise about the unity of the human mind.

c)    Structural Analysis of Myth
Lévi-Strauss' work on myth parallels his interest in mental processes. He attempts to discover unconscious the regularities of the human mind. The use of the structuralist models of myth allows for the reduction of material studied to manageable levels. The dominant manner to accomplish this goal is based on the use of the following concepts:
1.    Surface and Deep Structure
To discover the model/structure of a myth one must explore the deep structure of a myth. The surface structure provides us with the narrative, the deep structure with an explication of the myth. This is accomplished by discovering the major binary opposition(s) in the deep structure.
2.    Binary oppositions
These occur in nature and naturally in the human mind. They are such things as night and day, left and right or nature and culture. Nature and culture often functions as a binary opposition in tales. However, depending on the tale or myth the binary opposition changes. For example, the binary opposition life and death is a useful one to explicate "Sleeping Beauty." Here, the deep structure of the story suggests that when the thirteenth fairy declares that Sleeping Beauty is to die at her fifteenth birthday that a life versus death binary opposition is posited. A mediation to solution the problem is now necessary.
3.    Mediation
A binary opposition can be mediated by finding a solution to the opposition created by the binary. The mediation to the culture/nature binary opposition is that culture transcends nature. In the case of "Sleeping Beauty" the nature of the mediation is quite different but equally embedded in within the subject matter. Here the life versus death binary opposition is mediated by the twelve fairy's action: death is transformed into one hundred years sleep.

Lexical Meaning

Discussing about lexical meaning, there is a currently growing interest in the content of lexical entries from a theoretical perspective as well as a growing need to understand the organization of the lexicon in a text. Lexical semantics has boomed in the meantime. In terms of the structure or detail, lexical semantic research has developed over than twenty years long.

Generally, lexical meaning is the meaning of a word in relation to the physical world or to abstract concepts, without reference to any sentence in which the word may occur. In the other words, it is a linguistic theory that investigates word meaning. This theory understands that the meaning of a word is fully reflected by its context. Here, the meaning of a word is constituted by its contextual relations. Therefore, a distinction between degrees of participation as well as modes of participation are made.. In order to accomplish this distinction any part of a sentence that bears a meaning and combines with the meanings of other constituents is labeled as a semantic constituent. Semantic constituents that can not be broken down into more elementary constituents is labeled a minimal semantic constituent.

Sejarah NII dan Ideologinya

Akhir-akhir ini, masyarakat kita kembali digemparkan dengan aksi pencucian otak terhadap  mahasiswa. Diduga bahwa gerakan NII berada dibalik kejadian tersebut. Keberadaan gerakan ini kembali menjadi sorotan setelah ditemukan beberapa mahasiswa hilang.

 

Nah, apa sih NII itu? 

Buat kalian yang baru tahu keberadaannya, NII (Negara Islam Indonesia) adalah gerakan politik yang didirikan oleh  Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosoewirjo pada 7 Agustus 1949 di Desa Cisampah, Kecamatan Ciawiligar, Kawedanan Cisayong, Tasikmalaya, Jawa Barat. Gerakan ini menginginkan Indonesia berideologi Islam. Mereka mengklaim bahwa sejak perang dengan Belanda, indonesia sudah menjadi sebuah negara Teokratis yang berlandaskan hukum Islam sehingga diwajibkan bagi negara untuk merumuskan suatu hukum yang bersumber dari syariat agama Islam.

Dalam perkembangannya, NII ini sebenarnya bersikap anti komunis dan juga anti kapitalis. NII menjamin kebebasan beribadat bagi yang non-muslim, tetapi memutuskan hukukuman mati bagi berbagai tingkat kemurtadan dan kemunduran iman oleh kaum Muslimin.

Adapun menurut peneliti Terorisme Indonesia, Noor Huda Ismail, NII sekarang cenderung ambisius alias menghalalkan cara demi mewujudkan harapan terbentuknya negara islam yang diidam-idamakan. Para perekrut anggota gerakan NII saat ini juga sudah menyesuaikan dengan perkembangan zaman untuk menutupi pergerakan mereka dari aparat penegakan hukum di Indonesia