“The order and harmony of the Western world, its most famous achievement, and a laboratory in which structures of a complexity as yet unknown are being fashioned, demand the elimination of a prodigious mass of noxious by-products which now contaminate the globe. The first thing we see as we travel round the world is our own filth, thrown into the face of mankind.”
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.”