Structural Anthropology Zero

This volume of Lévi-Strauss's writings from 1941 to 1947 bears witness to a period of his work which is often overlooked but which was the crucible for the structural anthropology that he would go on to develop in the years that followed. Like many European Jewish intellectuals, Lévi-Strauss had sought refuge in New York while the Nazis overran and occupied much of Europe. He had already been introduced to Jakobson and structural linguistics but he had not yet laid out an agenda for structuralism, which he would do in the 1950s and 60s. At the same time, these American years were the time when Lévi-Strauss would learn of some of the world's most devastating historical catastrophes - the genocide of the indigenous American peoples and of European Jews. From the beginning of the 1950s, Lévi-Strauss's anthropology tacitly bears the heavy weight of the memory and possibility of the Shoah. To speak of 'structural anthropology zero' is therefore to refer to the source of a way of thinking which turned our conception of the human on its head. But this prequel to __Structural Anthropology__ also underlines the sense of a tabula rasa which animated its author at the end of the war as well as the project – shared with others – of a civilizational rebirth on novel grounds. Published here in English for the first time, this volume of Lévi-Strauss’s texts from the 1940s will be of great interest to students and scholars in anthropology, sociology and the social sciences generally. Cover Title page Copyright page Contents A Note on this Edition Illustrations Introduction by Vincent Debaene A prehistory of structural anthropology New York, 1941-1947 Tabula rasa The welfare state and international cooperation “National sovereignty is not a good in itself” The genocide of Amerindians and the destruction of European Jews History and Method I French Sociology II III Selected Bibliography II In Memory of Malinowski III The Work of Edward Westermarck IV The Name of the Nambikwara Individual and Society V Five Book Reviews VI Techniques for Happiness Reciprocity and Hierarchy VII War and Trade among the Indians of South America IX Reciprocity and Hierarchy X The Foreign Policy of a Primitive Society Art XI Indian Cosmetics XII The Art of the Northwest Coast at the American Museum of Natural History South American Ethnography XIII The Social Use of Kinship Terms among Brazilian Indians XIV On Dual Organization in South America XV The Tupi-Kawahib Tribal Divisions and History Culture Subsistence Houses Dress and ornaments Transportation Manufactures Social and political organization Warfare Life cycle Aesthetic and recreational activities Magic and religion Bibliography XVI The Nambikwara Tribal Divisions and History Culture Subsistence Houses Clothing and adornment Transportation Manufactures Social and political organization Life cycle Aesthetic and recreational activities Magic and religion Shamanism and medicine Folklore, lore and learning Bibliography XVII Tribes of the Right Bank of the Guaporé River Introduction Tribal Divisions Culture Subsistence and food preparation Domesticated animals Houses Dress and adornment Transportation Manufactures Social organizations Life cycle Cannibalism Aesthetic and recreational activities Religion, folklore and mythology Bibliography Sources Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter XIV Chapter XV Chapter XVI Chapter XVII Notes Introduction Chapter I French Sociology Chapter III The Work of Edward Westermarck Chapter IV The Name of the Nambikwara Chapter VI Techniques for Happiness Chapter VII War and Trade among the Indians of South America Chapter VIII The Theory of Power in a Primitive Society Chapter IX Reciprocity and Hierarchy Chapter X The Foreign Policy of a Primitive Society Chapter XI Indian Cosmetics Chapter XII The Art of the Northwest Coast at the American Museum of Natural History Chapter XIII The Social Use of Kinship Terms among Brazilian Indians Chapter XIV On Dual Organization in South America Index EULA "Writings from Lévi-Strauss's sojourn in the United States in the 1940s that shed new light on the thinking of one of the world's greatest anthropologists"