World Famous Comics: Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture
Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture
By: Claude Levi-Strauss Publisher: Schocken Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Schocken Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 80 Publication Date: March 14, 1995 Release Date: March 14, 1995
Product Description: In addresses written for a wide general audience, one of the twentieth century's most prominent thinkers, Claude Levi-Strauss, here offers the insights of a lifetime on the crucial questions of human existence. Responding to questions as varied as 'Can there be meaning in chaos?', 'What can science learn from myth?' and 'What is structuralism?', Levi-Strauss presents, in clear, precise language, essential guidance for those who want to learn more about the potential of the human mind.
anthropological dream Meaning and Myth is a short collection of Levi-Strauss' lectures. It is remarkable because it gives insight into the thoughts of this famous anthropologist. The recorded lectures were given orally, which creates new respect for the genius of a man who could speak so fluently and eloquently in a language that is not his native tongue.
If you have no interest in anthropology, you will probably not enjoy the book, but if you have a stong interest, this is a great way to start to understand the mind of one of the world's greatest anthropologists.
Also, the foreword by Wendy Doniger was one of the funniest, cleverest, most insightful forewords I have read. This surprised me immensely since I usually hate any part of a book not written by the author.
I highly recommend "Mening and Myth: Cracking the Code of Culture" if you have an academic interest in the subject of anthropology and are looking for a starting point.
An introduction to anthropology and Levi-Strauss The book is a recommended introduction to anthropology and the theories of Levi-Strauss. Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture describes, among other things, how some myths have certain attributes common in between them and how they would evolve. The author describes how in certain cultures twins are viewed as evil and theories how that might have evolved. At the end, the book discusses how myths should be interpreted.
A very readable introduction to Claude Lévi-Strauss MYTH AND MEANING is a short and easily-digestible work based on a series of interviews and discussions delivered by the venerable French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss and broadcast by Canadian radio in 1977. Its informal and conversational style (based on his responses to a series of questions posed by the CBC producer who is interviewing him) allows us broad-stroke insight into Lévi-Strauss's development of structuralism and his theories about science.
A self-professed "non-scientist" with a strong interest in science, Lévi-Strauss begins by outlining the divergence between science and "mythical and mystical thought" which began to occur around the 17th century in European intellectual traditions. The result is, we are lead to believe, that we have somehow lost something: something we may yet strive to regain or at least try to understand better.
Lévi-Strauss makes the argument that `primitive' thought is as rich and complex as so-called `civilized' thought, debunking various functionalist and traditional viewpoints that deny the savage mind has the ability to think both disinterestedly and intellectually. "In order for a culture to be really itself... its members must be convinced of their originality and even... of their superiority over the others." Mythical thinking may be the originality that we have lost in modern life.
One gets the sense that Lévi-Strauss develops his theories as he speaks-extemporaneously. He almost admits as much in his introduction: "I forget what I have written practically as soon as it is finished... I have the feeling that my books get written through me and that once [finished], I feel empty and nothing is left." Some of his explanations of particular myths, though entertaining, are a bit "out there" and border implausibility. One may reproach him for his methods or dispute his theories, but no one can deny that MYTH AND MEANING provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of this original and controversial thinker.
Jeremy W. Forstadt
Good Introduction to Levi-Strauss but falters at the end This book, based on interviews Levi-Strauss conducted with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the late '70s, is extremely clear and easy to understand for non-anthropologists like myself. He explains his views about how rational science and mythology branched off from each other in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, leading us to a situation where today we experience life differently that do 'primitive' tribes who use myths to explain the world around them. Levi-Strauss notes, however, that, while these peoples may not be as accurate in describing the world as we are with our modern science, they do possess a great deal of knowledge which we have lost on an individual level, i.e., knowledge about plants and stars. Mythology, he claims, functions like history and science for these people; for an example Levi-Strauss focuses his attention on the meaning of American myths about twins, hare(lips) and babies born feet first.
All this is quite well laid out and easy to read. However, the last chapter deals with music and mythology, and here Levi-Strauss badly missteps. He postulates that the decline in mythology that accompanied the rise of modern science coincided with the creation of great music by the likes of Bach, Haydn and Mozart that drew upon the same sources of inspiration as mythology. He spends several pages in a structural critique of Wagner's Ring which, albeit fascinating, is highly questionable. Furthermore, at the end of the book he suggests, quite wildly, that serial music is now poised to overtake the modern novel, which arose at the same time as modern science, in importance.
This weak section at the end notwithstanding, however, this is a good book for anyone interested in Levi-Strauss's groundbreaking work.
Great Infro to Levi-Strauss If you trying to understand what drives Levi-Srauss to write, then this is the book you've been looking for...
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