Claude Levi-Strauss: The Poet in the Laboratory (62 page)
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BOOK: Claude Levi-Strauss: The Poet in the Laboratory
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27
Count Gobineau was a thinker whom Lévi-Strauss greatly admired and whose ideas he had used in both
La Pensée sauvage
and
L’Homme nu
. Lévi-Strauss believed that Gobineau had been wrongly overlooked for holding views that, although unacceptable today, were commonplace in his own time. See Lévi-Strauss’s discussion in Didier Eribon,
Conversations
, pp. 145-63.
Count Gobineau was a thinker whom Lévi-Strauss greatly admired and whose ideas he had used in both
La Pensée sauvage
and
L’Homme nu
. Lévi-Strauss believed that Gobineau had been wrongly overlooked for holding views that, although unacceptable today, were commonplace in his own time. See Lévi-Strauss’s discussion in Didier Eribon,
Conversations
, pp. 145-63.
28
Cited in Pace,
Claude Lévi-Strauss
, pp. 193-94.
Cited in Pace,
Claude Lévi-Strauss
, pp. 193-94.
29
Lévi-Strauss, “Reflections on Liberty,”
The View from Afar
, p. 280.
Lévi-Strauss, “Reflections on Liberty,”
The View from Afar
, p. 280.
30
Lévi-Strauss,
Tristes Tropiques
, p. 106; Eribon,
Conversations
, p. 3.
Lévi-Strauss,
Tristes Tropiques
, p. 106; Eribon,
Conversations
, p. 3.
31
According to Maranda, in “Une fervente amitié,” p. 54.
According to Maranda, in “Une fervente amitié,” p. 54.
32
Lévi-Strauss in Eribon,
Conversations
, p. 165, translation modified.
Lévi-Strauss in Eribon,
Conversations
, p. 165, translation modified.
33
“Claude Lévi-Strauss in Conversation with George Steiner,”
BBC Third Programme
.
“Claude Lévi-Strauss in Conversation with George Steiner,”
BBC Third Programme
.
34
Lévi-Strauss,
The Way of the Masks
, pp. 5-8.
Lévi-Strauss,
The Way of the Masks
, pp. 5-8.
35
Pierre Maranda, an anthropologist interested in the structural approach, had met Lévi-Strauss several times in the 1960s, and in 1968 ended up working at Lévi-Strauss’s invitation as an associate director of studies at the École pratique des hautes études en sciences sociales; see his homage to his long friendship with Lévi-Strauss in Maranda, “Une fervente amitié,” pp. 52-75.
Pierre Maranda, an anthropologist interested in the structural approach, had met Lévi-Strauss several times in the 1960s, and in 1968 ended up working at Lévi-Strauss’s invitation as an associate director of studies at the École pratique des hautes études en sciences sociales; see his homage to his long friendship with Lévi-Strauss in Maranda, “Une fervente amitié,” pp. 52-75.
36
Lévi-Strauss,
Saudades do Brasil
, p. 17.
Lévi-Strauss,
Saudades do Brasil
, p. 17.
37
For a brief and lucid demonstration of this, see Lévi-Strauss’s discussion of a comparison between the Salish and the Kwakiutl masks and myths in Tom Shandel,
Behind the Masks
, National Film Board of Canada, 1973.
For a brief and lucid demonstration of this, see Lévi-Strauss’s discussion of a comparison between the Salish and the Kwakiutl masks and myths in Tom Shandel,
Behind the Masks
, National Film Board of Canada, 1973.
38
Maranda, “Une fervente amitié,” p. 57.
Maranda, “Une fervente amitié,” p. 57.
39
Lévi-Strauss in Didier Eribon,
Conversations
, p. 95.
Lévi-Strauss in Didier Eribon,
Conversations
, p. 95.
40
Lévi-Strauss,
The View from Afar
, p. 235.
Lévi-Strauss,
The View from Afar
, p. 235.
41
Claude Lévi-Strauss,
Myth and Meaning
(London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 7, 9.
Claude Lévi-Strauss,
Myth and Meaning
(London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 7, 9.
42
Lévi-Strauss in Didier Eribon,
Conversations
, p. 91.
Lévi-Strauss in Didier Eribon,
Conversations
, p. 91.
43
“Bernadette Bucher with Claude Lévi-Strauss, 30 June 1982,”
American Ethnologist
, vol. 12, no. 2, 1985, pp. 365-66.
“Bernadette Bucher with Claude Lévi-Strauss, 30 June 1982,”
American Ethnologist
, vol. 12, no. 2, 1985, pp. 365-66.
44
Lévi-Strauss, interview with the author, March 2005.
Lévi-Strauss, interview with the author, March 2005.
45
Lévi-Strauss in Tom Shandel,
Behind the Masks
.
Lévi-Strauss in Tom Shandel,
Behind the Masks
.
46
Claude Lévi-Strauss,
The Jealous Potter
(Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1996), p. 190.
Claude Lévi-Strauss,
The Jealous Potter
(Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1996), p. 190.
47
Ibid., p. 186.
Ibid., p. 186.
48
Ibid., p. 206.
Ibid., p. 206.
49
Lévi-Strauss, “Le Coucher de soleil,” p. 12. In an earlier interview, Lévi-Strauss was more direct: “I am by temperament somewhat of a misanthrope”; see A. A. Akoun, F. Morin and J. Mousseau, “A Conversation with Claude Lévi-Strauss,” p. 82.
Lévi-Strauss, “Le Coucher de soleil,” p. 12. In an earlier interview, Lévi-Strauss was more direct: “I am by temperament somewhat of a misanthrope”; see A. A. Akoun, F. Morin and J. Mousseau, “A Conversation with Claude Lévi-Strauss,” p. 82.
50
Lévi-Strauss in Augé, “Ten Questions Put to Claude Lévi-Strauss,” p. 85.
Lévi-Strauss in Augé, “Ten Questions Put to Claude Lévi-Strauss,” p. 85.
51
Lévi-Strauss in Eribon,
Conversations
, pp. 87, 151.
Lévi-Strauss in Eribon,
Conversations
, pp. 87, 151.
52
Ibid., pp. 156-57.
Ibid., pp. 156-57.
53
Ibid., p. 151.
Ibid., p. 151.
54
Ibid., p. 94.
Ibid., p. 94.
55
See Lévi-Strauss, “Do Dual Organizations Exist?”
Structural Anthropology
, vol. 1, pp. 132-63. In a complex analysis he found that features previously dismissed as anomalies in so-called dual-organization societies were integral to their structure. He went on to argue that there were really two different types of dualism, diametric and concentric, mediated by a ternary structure.
See Lévi-Strauss, “Do Dual Organizations Exist?”
Structural Anthropology
, vol. 1, pp. 132-63. In a complex analysis he found that features previously dismissed as anomalies in so-called dual-organization societies were integral to their structure. He went on to argue that there were really two different types of dualism, diametric and concentric, mediated by a ternary structure.
56
Rodney Needham, “The birth of the meaningful,”
Times Literary Supplement
, April 13, 1984.
Rodney Needham, “The birth of the meaningful,”
Times Literary Supplement
, April 13, 1984.
57
Cited in Tambiah,
Edmund Leach
, p. 253.
Cited in Tambiah,
Edmund Leach
, p. 253.
58
Lévi-Strauss in Boutang and Chevallay,
Claude Lévi-Strauss in His Own Words
, 1:15:00.
Lévi-Strauss in Boutang and Chevallay,
Claude Lévi-Strauss in His Own Words
, 1:15:00.
59
Lévi-Strauss,
Oeuvres
, pp. 1572-73.
Lévi-Strauss,
Oeuvres
, pp. 1572-73.
60
Merquior,
From Prague to Paris
, p. 191.
Merquior,
From Prague to Paris
, p. 191.
61
Cited in Didier Eribon,
Michel Foucault
(London: Faber and Faber, 1992), p. 161.
Cited in Didier Eribon,
Michel Foucault
(London: Faber and Faber, 1992), p. 161.
62
Lévi-Strauss,
Myth and Meaning
, p. 47.
Lévi-Strauss,
Myth and Meaning
, p. 47.
63
Claude Lévi-Strauss, “Entretien,”
Le Monde
, February 22, 2005.
Claude Lévi-Strauss, “Entretien,”
Le Monde
, February 22, 2005.
64
Lévi-Strauss,
Saudades do Brasil
, p. 142.
Lévi-Strauss,
Saudades do Brasil
, p. 142.
65
Ibid., p. 9.
Ibid., p. 9.
66
Clifford Geertz,
Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), pp. 25-26.
Clifford Geertz,
Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), pp. 25-26.
1
Lévi-Strauss cited in Paul Hendrickson, “Claude-Lévi Strauss: Behemoth from the Ivory Tower,”
Washington Post
, February 24, 1978.
Lévi-Strauss cited in Paul Hendrickson, “Claude-Lévi Strauss: Behemoth from the Ivory Tower,”
Washington Post
, February 24, 1978.
2
Claude Lévi-Strauss in Didier Eribon, “Visite à Lévi-Strauss,”
Le Nouvel Observateur
, no. 1979, October 10, 2002:
http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualite/opinion/00030882.EDI0001 /visite-a-levi-strauss.html.
Claude Lévi-Strauss in Didier Eribon, “Visite à Lévi-Strauss,”
Le Nouvel Observateur
, no. 1979, October 10, 2002:
http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualite/opinion/00030882.EDI0001 /visite-a-levi-strauss.html.
3
James M. Markham, “Paris Journal: A French Thinker Who Declines a Guru Mantle,”
New York Times
, December 21, 1987.
James M. Markham, “Paris Journal: A French Thinker Who Declines a Guru Mantle,”
New York Times
, December 21, 1987.
4
Lévi-Strauss,
Oeuvres
, p. lvii.
Lévi-Strauss,
Oeuvres
, p. lvii.
5
Claude Lévi-Strauss in Didier Eribon, “Visite à Lévi-Strauss.”
Claude Lévi-Strauss in Didier Eribon, “Visite à Lévi-Strauss.”
6
Lévi-Strauss in “Le Coucher de soleil: entretien avec Boris Wiseman,”
Les Temps modernes
, no. 628, August-October 2004, p. 17.
Lévi-Strauss in “Le Coucher de soleil: entretien avec Boris Wiseman,”
Les Temps modernes
, no. 628, August-October 2004, p. 17.
7
Lévi-Strauss, “Entretien par Raymond Bellour,” in
Oeuvres
, pp. 1654-55.
Lévi-Strauss, “Entretien par Raymond Bellour,” in
Oeuvres
, pp. 1654-55.
8
Gilles de Catheu, “Saudades do Brasil,”
O Globo
, November 7, 2009.
Gilles de Catheu, “Saudades do Brasil,”
O Globo
, November 7, 2009.
9
There were a few dissenting voices, including a piece in the left-wing magazine
Marianne
questioning his position on race and his attitude to Islam; see Philippe Cohen, “Lévi-Strauss sans formol,”
Marianne
, November 4, 2009.
There were a few dissenting voices, including a piece in the left-wing magazine
Marianne
questioning his position on race and his attitude to Islam; see Philippe Cohen, “Lévi-Strauss sans formol,”
Marianne
, November 4, 2009.
10
“Tous les anthropologues français sont les enfants de Claude Lévi-Strauss,”
Le Monde
, November 3, 2009.
“Tous les anthropologues français sont les enfants de Claude Lévi-Strauss,”
Le Monde
, November 3, 2009.
11
“Les obsèques de Claude Lévi-Strauss ont déjà eu lieu,”
Le Point
, November 3, 2009.
“Les obsèques de Claude Lévi-Strauss ont déjà eu lieu,”
Le Point
, November 3, 2009.
1. Claude Lévi-Strauss and Didier Eribon,
Conversations with Claude Lévi-Strauss
, Paula Wissing, trans. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).
2. Georges Charbonnier,
Conversations with Claude Lévi-Strauss
, John and Doreen Weightman, trans. (London: Jonathan Cape, 1969).
3. Claude Lévi-Strauss,
Myth and Meaning
(London: Routledge, 2006).
4. Pierre-André Boutang and Annie Chevallay,
Claude Lévi-Strauss in His Own Words
(
Claude Lévi-Strauss par lui-même
), Arte Éditions, 2008; Tom Shandel,
Behind the Masks
, National Film Board of Canada, 1973.
5. Edmund Leach,
Claude Lévi-Strauss
(London: Fontana/Collins, 1974).
6. David Pace,
Claude Lévi-Strauss: The Bearer of Ashes
(Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983).
7. François Dosse,
History of Structuralism, vol. 1, The Rising Sign, 1945-1966
(Minneapolis, Minn., and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1997);
History of Structuralism, vol. 2, The Sign Sets, 1967-present
(Minneapolis, Minn., and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1997).
8. Boris Wiseman and Judy Groves,
Introducing Lévi-Strauss and Structural Anthropology
(Cambridge: Icon Books, 2000).
9. Dan Sperber, “Claude Lévi-Strauss Today,” in
On Anthropological Knowledge
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
10. Clifford Geertz, “The Cerebral Savage: On the Work of Claude Lévi-Strauss,” in
Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988).
11. Howard Gardner,
The Mind’s New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution
(New York: Basic, 1987); John Sturrock,
Structuralism
(London: Fontana, 1993); J. G. Merquior,
From Prague to Paris: A Critique of Structuralist and Post-structuralist Thought,
(London: Verso, 1988); Boris Wiseman, “Claude Lévi-Strauss,” in Christopher John Murray, ed.,
Encyclopedia of Modern French Thought
(New York; London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004);
http://www.routledge-ny.com/ref/modfrenchthought/levistrauss.PDF
.
12. Claude Lévi-Strauss:
The Anthropologist as Hero
, ed. E. Nelson Hayes and Tanya Hayes (Cambridge, Mass., & London: MIT Press, 1970).
13. Claude Lévi-Strauss,
Tristes Tropiques
, John and Doreen Weightman, trans. (London: Picador, 1989).
14. Claude Lévi-Strauss, “New York in 1941,” in
The View from Afar
, Joachim Neugroschel and Phoebe Hoss, trans. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985).
15. Claude Lévi-Strauss,
Saudades do Brasil: A Photographic Memoir
, Sylvia Modelski, trans. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995).
16. Claude Lévi-Strauss,
The Raw and the Cooked: Introduction to a Science of Mythology 1
, John and Doreen Weightman, trans. (London: Jonathan Cape, 1970); Claude Lévi-Strauss,
The Naked Man: Introduction to a Science of Mythology 4
, John and Doreen Weightman, trans., (London: Jonathan Cape, 1981).
17. Claude Lévi-Strauss,
The Savage Mind
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1966).
18. Lévi-Strauss,
The Elementary Structures of Kinship
, James Harle Bell, John Richard von Sturmer and Rodney Needham, trans. (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1969).
19. Lévi-Strauss, “The Structural Study of Myth” in
Structural Anthropology
, vol. 1, (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968).
20. Claude Lévi-Strauss, “The View from Afar,”
UNESCO Courier,
no. 5 (2008):
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0016/001627/162711E.pdf
.
21. Denis Bertholet,
Claude Lévi-Strauss
(Paris: Plon, 2003).
22. Frédéric Keck,
Lévi-Strauss et la pensée sauvage
(Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2004); Frédéric Keck,
Claude Lévi-Strauss, une introduction
(Paris: Pocket, 2005); Frédéric Keck and Vincent Debaene,
Claude Lévi-Strauss : L’homme au regard éloigné
(Paris: Gallimard, 2009).
23. Claude Lévi-Strauss
, Oeuvres
(Paris: Gallimard: Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 2007).
FURTHER READING
Approaching the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss can be daunting. He was a prolific writer, active for over half a century, publishing several hundred essays and more than a dozen books—seven on mythology alone—throughout his long career. In the 1980s a book-length bibliography of secondary sources was published; since then, another library of Lévi-Strauss-related material has appeared with a late surge of publications to commemorate his centenary. Sheer quantity is at times matched by a density of ideas and material—indeed, some stretches of
The Elementary Structures of Kinship
and the
Mythologiques
quartet are not for the fainthearted.
The Elementary Structures of Kinship
and the
Mythologiques
quartet are not for the fainthearted.
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