Claude Levi-Strauss Quotes
Claude Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and philosopher and the founder of structural anthropology. Influenced by Roman Jakobson's structural linguistics and his own field experience among the indigenous peoples of Brazil, he developed a method that sought to identify the unconscious logical structures underlying kinship systems, totemism, and myth. The quotes below are attributed to Claude Levi-Strauss, organized by topic.
Browse Claude Levi-Strauss by topic
Claude Levi-Strauss on Justice
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“The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.”
The Raw and the Cooked : Introduction to a Science of Mythology (1975) Vol. I, [ Le Cru et le Cuit , as translated by Doreen and John Weightman], p. 7 -
“Once men begin to feel cramped in their geographical, social and mental habitat, they are in danger of being tempted by the simple solution of denying one section of the species the right to be considered as human. This allows the rest a little elbow-room for a few more decades.”
Tristes Tropiques(1955) | Chapter 16 : Markets p. 149
Claude Levi-Strauss on Knowledge
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Attributed to Claude Levi-Strauss:
“The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers; he is one who asks the right questions.”
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“The entire village left the next day in about thirty canoes, leaving us alone with the women and children in the abandoned houses. [Le village entier partit le lendemain dans une trentaine de pirogues, nous laissant seuls avec les femmes et les enfants dans les maisons abandonnées.]”
Notes in an early work, often cited as an extreme example of androcentrism , even among leading anthropologists, " Contribution à l'étude de l'organisation sociale des Indiens Bororo " (1936) p. 283 -
“Notes in an early work, often cited as an extreme example of androcentrism , even among leading anthropologists, " Contribution à l'étude de l'organisation sociale des Indiens Bororo " (1936) p. 283”
The entire village left the next day in about thirty canoes, leaving us alone with the women and children in the abandoned houses. [Le village entier partit le lendemain dans une trentaine de pirogues, nous laissant seuls avec les femmes et les enfants dans les maisons abandonnées.] -
“The Scope of Anthropology (1960)”
Our science arrived at maturity the day that Western man began to see that he would never understand himself as long as there was a single race or people on the surface of the earth that he treated as an object. Only then could anthropology declare itself in its true colours: as an enterprise reviewing and atoning for the Renaissance, in order to spread humanism to all humanity. -
“These facts make the creator of music a being like the gods, and make music itself the supreme mystery of human knowledge.”
Mythologiques I: Le cru et le cuit (1964) -
“Mythologiques I: Le cru et le cuit (1964)”
These facts make the creator of music a being like the gods, and make music itself the supreme mystery of human knowledge.
Claude Levi-Strauss on Life
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“The image a society evolves of the relationship between the living and the dead is, in the final analysis, an attempt, on the level of religious thought, to conceal, embellish or justify the actual relationships which prevail among the living.”
Tristes Tropiques(1955) | Chapter 23 : The Living and the Dead, p. 246
Claude Levi-Strauss on Mind
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Attributed to Claude Levi-Strauss:
“I am the place in which something has occurred.”
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Attributed to Claude Levi-Strauss:
“Myths get thought in man unbeknownst to him.”
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Attributed to Claude Levi-Strauss:
“The savage mind totalizes; it thinks the whole through the parts.”
Claude Levi-Strauss on Nature
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Attributed to Claude Levi-Strauss:
“The world began without man, and it will end without him.”
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“Our science arrived at maturity the day that Western man began to see that he would never understand himself as long as there was a single race or people on the surface of the earth that he treated as an object. Only then could anthropology declare itself in its true colours: as an enterprise reviewing and atoning for the Renaissance, in order to spread humanism to all humanity.”
The Scope of Anthropology (1960) -
“We can understand, too, that natural species are chosen not because they are "good to eat" but because they are "good to think." [Les espèces sont choisies non commes bonnes à manger, mais comme bonnes à penser.]”
Totemism (1962), [ Le Totémisme aujourd'hui , as translated by Rodney Needham], p. 89 | Often paraphrased as "Animals are good to think with". -
“Nature has only a limited number of procedures at her disposal and that the kinds of procedure which Nature uses at one level of reality are bound to reappear at different levels.”
Myth and Meaning(1978) | Chapter 1 : The Meeting of Myth and Science -
“Natural man did not precede society, nor is he outside it.”
Tristes Tropiques(1955) | Chapter 38 : A Little Glass of Rum, p. 392
Claude Levi-Strauss on Time
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“Humanity is confined to the borders of the tribe, the linguistic group, or even, in some instances, to the village ....”
Race and History (1952), p. 12 -
“Marxist, communist and totalitarian ideology is only a ruse of history.”
L'idéologie marxiste, communiste et totalitaire n'est qu'une ruse de l'histoire , w:Le Monde [1]
Claude Levi-Strauss on Virtue
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“Often paraphrased as "Animals are good to think with".”
We can understand, too, that natural species are chosen not because they are "good to eat" but because they are "good to think." [Les espèces sont choisies non commes bonnes à manger, mais comme bonnes à penser.]