“Not only does a journey transport us over enormous distances, it also causes us to move a few degrees up or down in the social scale. It displaces us physically and also for better or for worse takes us out of our class context, so that the colour and flavour of certain places cannot be dissociated from the always unexpected social level on which we find ourselves in experiencing them.”
Tristes Tropiques is a personal account of Claude Lévi-Strauss's travels through the Amazon and Madagascar. The book combines his observations of indigenous cultures with reflections on the nature of culture and society. Lévi-Strauss's work is characterized by its structuralist approach, which seeks to uncover the underlying patterns and structures that underlie human societies. more
Claude Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist known for his structuralist theories and his analyses of myths, kinship, and human culture. His work has had a profound impact on post-structuralism and semiotics. more
“Natural man did not precede society, nor is he outside it.”
“In science, the best precept is to alter and exchange our ideas as fast as science moves ahead.”
“Particular facts are never scientific; only generalization can establish science.”