Claude Lévi-Strauss
Father of structural anthropology
Quotes by Claude Lévi-Strauss
The purpose of anthropology is to dissolve man.
The human condition is one of perpetual exile.
The individual is a product of social structures, not an autonomous agent.
The distinction between 'primitive' and 'civilized' is a false one.
Myth is a logical instrument for overcoming contradictions.
The structure of language reflects the structure of the mind.
The human mind is a universal structure, regardless of culture.
The study of kinship is the key to understanding social organization.
The world is not a collection of things, but a system of relations.
The anthropologist must be both inside and outside the culture he studies.
The meaning of a cultural phenomenon is not inherent in itself, but in its relation to other phenomena.
The purpose of art is to make visible the invisible structures of the mind.
The human being is a sign-making animal.
The world is a text to be read.
The task of anthropology is to discover the universal laws of human thought.
The human mind is a machine for generating meaning.
The concept of 'progress' is a Western ethnocentric bias.
The 'primitive' mind is not less rational, but differently rational.
The individual is an illusion, a product of social forces.
The study of myth is a scientific endeavor, not a literary one.