the savage mind summary

Here he speaks of the conceptual complexities of indigenous languages. There is no Hobbesian h The dimensions multiply, and the growth of axes of reference beyond a certain point paralyses intuitive methods: it becomes impossible to visualize a system when its representation requires a continuum of more than three or four dimensions. Lévi-Strauss makes clear that "la pensée sauvage" refers not to the discrete mind of any particular type of human, but rather to 'untamed' human thought: "In this book it is neither the mind of savages nor that of primitive or archaic humanity, but rather mind in its untamed state as distinct from mind cultivated or domesticated for the purpose of yielding a return." Thus the variety

It is perhaps because [anthropologists] Spencer and Gillen’s material related to a comparatively limited number of Australian tribes and was at the same time remarkably full for each, that they were more acutely aware than their successors of the systematic relations between [concepts in indigenous languages] … The greater our knowledge, the more obscure the overall scheme.

If scientific thought is represented by the engineer who asks a question and tries to design an optimal or complete solution, savage thought resembles the One of Lévi-Strauss's many examples is the relationship between two Australian groups, the In other words, the operation of identifying with a totem is secondary to the underlying process of re-appropriating structure (for example, observed differences between animals) for the purposes of society. The Aymara Indians of the Bolivian plateau (who may be descended from the legendary Colla to whom the great civilization of Tiahuanaco is attributed) are able experimenters in the preservation of foodstuffs. [Claude Lévi-Strauss] -- Discusses the significance of totemism among primitive peoples and its interpretation by anthropologists and philosophies. Savage thought, Lévi-Strauss argues, continually gathers and applies structures wherever they can be used. In general, native terms can be said to constitute a well-conceived system, and, with a pinch of salt, they can be said to bear some resemblance to our scientific nomenclature. The idea is the more attractive since it is at least possible to see why Australia should be a particularly favourable field for such an experiment, more so than any other continent.

The truth which Levi-Strauss (hereafter L-S) develops is intended to destroy our common sense prejudices about how natives think. They were also agriculturalists and botanists, and developed the cultivation and taxonomy of the genus They are also at times comparable from a formal point of view, to those still in use in zoology and botany. The main idea of The Savage Mind is that people from so-called primitive cultures are equipped with the same mental faculties as those from so-called advanced cultures. The preservation of the indigenous terms for the local fauna is not just a matter of piety and integrity; it is a duty to science (Dennler, pp. Native classifications are not only methodical and based on carefully built theoretical knowledge. For L-S we are all natives. These primitive Indians did not leave the naming of natural phenomena to chance. They assembled tribal councils to decide which terms best corresponded to the nature of species, classifying groups and sub-groups with great precision. Levi-Strauss on the ‘Savage Mind’ Claude Levi-Strauss was one of the twentieth century’s most renowned anthropologists. Moreover, this development was not undergone passively. Savage Mind is intended to arrest our sense of time in the macro-historical sense, asking us to see humanity and the culture that humanity presupposes as something nearly eternal at its very depth. Native classifications are not only methodical and based on carefully built theoretical knowledge. Over two hundred and fifty varieties are still distinguished in native vocabulary and the figure was certainly higher in the past. The savage mind. It was by direct imitation of their technique of dehydration that the American army was able during the [Second World] war to reduce the rations of powdered potatoes sufficient for a hundred meals to the volume of a shoe box.

It was desired and conceptualized, for few civilizations seem to equal the Australians in their taste for erudition and speculation and what sometimes looks like intellectual dandyism, odd as this expression may appear when it is applied to people with so rudimentary a level of material life. This taxonomy operates by using a term to designate the variety and adding a qualifying adjective for each subvariety. ... [Later in the book, Levi Strauss discusses Australian Indigenous people.]

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