Claude Levi Strauss, a key figure in structural anthropology, introduced the concept of binary opposites, which are contrasting concepts that form the basic structure of narratives. Drawing from Ferdinand de Saussure's theory of structuralism, he argued that these opposites are intrinsic to both language and culture, influencing how meanings are derived through social narratives and interactions. Binary opposites like good/evil and strong/weak reflect complementary relationships, where the meaning of one is established in relation to the other, often leading to one having dominance over the other.

1. Binary Opposites
Claude Levi Strauss
BIPUL NATH

2. Introduction
• Claude Levi Strauss (28Nov, 1908-30Oct,
2009) was a Belgian born French
• anthropologist and ethnologist, whose work
was key development in structural
• anthropology.
• He is also referred to as the father of modern
anthropology.

3. Binary Opposites
• Levi Strauss proposed the idea of Binary Opposites. which simply refers to two
contrasting concepts existing opposite each other.
• Levi Strauss noticed that binary opposites form the basic structure of narratives; a
narrative is a spoken or written account of connected events; a story.
• His idea of binary opposite is an extension that he draws from Ferdinand de
Saussure’s theory of structuralism.
• Binary opposite initially comes into the scene with Ferdinand de Saussure.
Saussure- the father of structuralism.
• Structuralism deals with the study of language and its structure.
• Saussure talks about Sign, Signifier and Signified.
• Saussure suggests that binary opposites are inherent in linguistic structures.
• Levi Strauss drew this concept and employed it in his study of anthropology, which
is the study of cultures and people.
• Levis Strauss found that Binary opposites are also inherent in cultures because
language and culture are intrinsically connected to each other.

4. So what is binary opposites?
• Binary opposites simply means -- It is a pair of
related terms or concepts that have
contrasting meanings.
• For example- Good vis-a-vis Evil, White vis-a-
vis Black.
• Some other examples are - More vis-a-vis Less,
High vis-a-vis Low, Hot vis-a-vis Cold,
• Virtue vis-a-vis Vice, Moral vis-a-vis Immoral,
etc.

5. Contd…
• Levi Strauss found that binary opposite reflects its meaning through
• narratives.
• It draws its meaning from mythology.
• For instance binaries like- Good - Evil, Moral-Immoral, Tall-Short,
Strong-Weak, etc have a mythological origin.
• These narratives through, social processes and social interaction,
• assign meanings to these terms
• For example through economic, cultural, political interactions,
religious superstitions.
• God symbolizes Good, conversely Satan symbolizes Evil,
• David symbolizes Courage and Goliath symbolizes arrogance.
• There are many such cultural narratives where we find these binary
opposites reflected.
• Thus it has a civilizational origin, which is why the binary opposites
differ across cultures.

6. Contd…
• Saussure stated, that the relation between the
binaries are not contradictory, but structural,
complementary one.
• Meaning that one doesn’t make the other
disappear,
• Rather One establishes itself in relation to the
other.
• Saussure demonstrates that a sign’s meaning
is derived from its context and the group to
which it belongs.

7. Contd…
• Binary opposites are complementary
• Because the meaning of Good is derived by
establishing meaning of Bad.
• Structuralism states that we derive meaning by
drawing difference among objects.
• Thus we know about one binary in relation to the
other.
• Imagine if everyone was Strong, how would we
know what is meant by weak?
• We know strong because we have seen some one
weaker than the Strong that we know.

8. One Binary dominates over the other
• For example, Good and Bad are two binary
opposites.
• So One binary opposite will gain dominance over
the other.
• For instance Universally we consider Good over
Bad.
• We put emphasis on all the Good things and
simply rule out the bad ones.
• Because good plays a dominance over Bad.
• Good is God and we pray to God, we don’t pray
to Evil, which is bad.

9. Conclusion
• To put it simply binary opposites are basically
[Adjectives] qualities, like Strong/weak,
white/black, tall/short, more/less, etc.
• However there are some other [noun] and
[verb] binary opposites, such as Laugh/Cry,
Stop/Move, Asleep/Awake, Boy/Girl,
Man/Woman, etc.