Rudyard Kipling
English writer and poet (1865-1936)
Claude Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthropology at the College de France between 1959 and 1982, was elected a member of the Academie francaise in 1973 and was a member of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris.
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About the Claude Levi-Strauss
Claude Levi-Strausswas a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthropology at the College de France between 1959 and 1982, was elected a member of the Academie francaise in 1973 and was a member of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. He received numerous honors from universities and institutions throughout the world.
Levi-Strauss argued that the “savage” mind had the same structures as the “civilized” mind and that human characteristics are the same everywhere. These observations culminated in his famous book Tristes Tropiqueswhich established his position as one of the central figures in the structuralist school of thought. As well as sociology, his ideas reached into many fields in the humanities, including philosophy. Structuralism has been defined as “the search for the underlying patterns of thought in all forms of human activity.” He won the 1986 International Nonino Prize in Italy.
9 Quotes by Claude Levi-Strauss
- 1.
The wise man doesn’t give the right answers, he poses the right questions.
Claude Levi-StraussFrench anthropologist and ethnologist (1908-2009)
- 2.
The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions.
Claude Levi-StraussFrench anthropologist and ethnologist (1908-2009)
- 3.
Our system is the height of absurdity, since we treat the culprit both as a child, so as to have the right to punish him, and as an adult, in order to deny him consolation.
Claude Levi-StraussFrench anthropologist and ethnologist (1908-2009)
- 4.
Just as the individual is not alone in the group, nor any one in society alone among the others, so man is not alone in the universe.
Claude Levi-StraussFrench anthropologist and ethnologist (1908-2009)
- 5.
The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.
Claude Levi-StraussFrench anthropologist and ethnologist (1908-2009)
- 6.
I have never known so much naive conviction allied to greater intellectual poverty.
Claude Levi-StraussFrench anthropologist and ethnologist (1908-2009)
- 7.
The world began without man, and it will complete itself without him.
Claude Levi-StraussFrench anthropologist and ethnologist (1908-2009)
- 8.
Language is a form of human reason, which has its internal logic of which man knows nothing.
Claude Levi-StraussFrench anthropologist and ethnologist (1908-2009)
- 9.
I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men’s minds without their being aware of the fact.
Claude Levi-StraussFrench anthropologist and ethnologist (1908-2009)