Claude Lvi-Strauss: A Critical Study of His Thought

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Anthropologist Claude Lvi-Strauss was among the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. In this rigorous study, Maurice Godelier traces the evolution of his thought. Focusing primarily on Lvi-Strausss analysis of kinship and myth, Godelier provides an assessment of his intellectual achievements and legacy. Meticulously researched, Lvi-Strauss is written in a clear and accessible style. The culmination of decades of engagement with Lvi-Strausss work, this book will prove indispensible to students of his thought and structural anthropology more generally.

Reviews

All would agree on the influence of the voluminous oeuvre of Lvi-Strauss within the history of the Human Sciences. To come to terms with it, we need a reliable guide, such as this. Students of kinship, myth, or mythical thinking may disagree with some of Godeliers positions, but have here a splendid basis on which to build.
Nick Allen, University of Oxford

Maurice Godelier, eminent French anthropologist, surveys and assesses, sympathetically and critically, the mass of writings on kinship and mythology of another eminent French anthropologist, Claude Lvi-Strauss. This deep engagement of the one with the other is, for readers, both a pleasure and a powerful tool.
Thomas R. Trautmann, Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan


Cuts through the fog of commentary surrounding the legacy of this most enigmatic of scholars, to address Lvi-Strausss legacy in its own, properly anthropological terms. The book is a joy to read. Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen

Author Bio

Maurice Godelier is Professor of Anthropology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. One of the worlds most influential anthropologists, Godelier has written numerous works including Rationality and Irrationality in Economics, The Mental and the Material, The Making of Great Men and The Metamorphoses of Kinship.