As we will show in this book, we believe Structuralism and its catalyzers left deep tracks in the forests of learning, indelible tracks that will survive for many years to come.
Structuralism is an approach to the study of language, culture, and society that arose in the mid-twentieth century. Various major disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, and philosophy, sought to understand the underlying structures that govern human behavior and thought.
At its core, structuralism maintains that the meaning of any given element of language or culture decides its relationship to other elements in the system. For example, the meaning of a word is not fixed, but rather finds its place within a larger system of relationships with other words. Likewise, the meaning of a cultural practice is not determined by the practice itself, but rather by its relationship to other practices within a larger system of cultural meaning.