This study, which also has bearing on recent death of Claude Levi-Strauss, is concerned both with the questions how his work influenced sociology and how sociological thinking of his time was affected by his writings. Specifically, the following topics are addressed: the revitalization of the Durkheimian school, the relation between 'authentic' and 'inauthentic' societies, the problem of the historical perspective in the social sciences (in controversy with Sartre), his contribution to delineation (and redefinition) of the concept of 'social structure' (in controversy with Gurvitch), the formulation of the ' open future' problem, and especially the topic of progress (Levi-Strauss is considered to be a moderate 'cultural pessimist'). Three other significant problems are sketched out in this text: the transformation of the relation between anthropology and sociology, the question of race and the problem of racism – which are not unequivocal in Levi-Strauss's conception (and this holds true also for the topic of multiculturalism) - and the relation between 'classical structuralism' and post-structuralism.
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