Robert Deliège's book provides a concise overview of the monumental work of one of the greatest and most prolific thinkers of the 20th century. Claude Lévi-Strauss has had a profound and lasting impact on the course of contemporary anthropology. One could further argue that he has spawned a discipline in and of itself, so widespread has the influence of structuralism been, from linguistics to philosophy to psychology. He had a formative influence on such thinkers as Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, also Ernest Gellner, Jean Piaget, Paul Ricoeur and Vladimir Propp, to name but a few. Lévi-Strauss' visionary work sparked the debate, criticism and fervour that revived social anthropology at a critical point in the development of the discipline. This reappraisal is essential reading for students and indeed anyone wishing to have a handy introduction to one of the world's great minds.

Introduction * A Monument * A Way of Looking at Things * Part Two: Structuralist Thought * The Foundations * Rousseau, Inventor of the Sciences of Man * Structural Linguistics * Mauss and Exchange * Boas and Diffusionism * Beyond Empiricism * A World of the Mind * The Illusion of Transparency * What About the Unconscious? * Structuralism * Social Structure * Structure * The Primacy of the Mind * The Symbolic Origins of Society * Binary Oppositions * The Rejection of History * The Culinary Triangle * Part Three: Tristes Tropiques * A Critique of Modernity * A Remarkable Book * "Filth Thrown Into the Face of Mankind" * Against Progress * Charming Savages a Disappointing Encounter * The Savage to the Aid of Rousseau * Solving Problems * A Better World * Part Four: Kinship * The Incest Taboo * The Basics * Nature and Culture * The Hidden Side of Exchange * The Circulation of Women * The Atom of Kinship * Radcliffe-Brown's Analysis * Lévi-Strauss' Critique * A Kinship Structure * Preferential Marriage * The Principle * Cross and Parallel Cousins * Why Marry a Cousin? * The Demonstration *Kinds of Exchanges and Cousins * Marriage With the Bilateral Cousin * Marriage With the Matrilateral Cross Cousin * Marriage With the Patrilateral Cross Cousin * Discussion * Towards a Formalization? * Prescriptive or Preferential? * Rules and Strategies the Case of the Paraiyars * The Woman As Commodity * The Circulation of Women * Part Five: Symbolic Classifications * Totemism * Classification * A Cognitive Approach * The Illusion of Totemism * Totemism and Exogamy * Towards the Mind * From Durkheim to Social Anthropology * The Philosophers' Contribution * Systems of Differences * Taking a Stand * The Savage Mind * Beyond the Primitive Mind * Lévy-Bruhl * The Savage Scientist * Classificatory Logic * The Science of the Concrete * From Totem to Caste * In Answer to Sartre * The Effectiveness of Symbols * The Sorcerer and His Magic * Belief * The Power of Words * Abreaction * The Shamanistic Cure * The Magical Incantation * The Cure * Critique * Part Six: Mythology * The Basis of Myths * The Importance of Studying Myths * A Vast Undertaking * Why Myths? * An Innovative Approach * Earlier Theories * The Myth in Itself * Transformations * An Example * The Origin of Fire * From One Order to the Other * From Shakespeare to Perrault * The Raw, the Cooked, Honey and Ashes * The Science of Mythology * More Reasoning * An Ojibwa Myth * An Ontological Solution * The Story of Aswidal * Part Seven: the Impact of Structuralism in Social Anthropology * The Development of French Anthropology * Towards a Noble Science * Enlargement of the Field of Study * Sources of Influence in France * A Marxist Structuralism * Kinship or Formalism * Structuralism in India * Anglo-Saxon Anthropology * Alliance Theory * Edmund Leach * Purity and Danger * Culture and Practical Reason * Conclusion