About the Author

Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009) is the most important anthropologist of the twentieth century, a leader in structuralist thought, and one of the key figures in the history of modern thought. He held the chair of social anthropology at the Collège de France between 1959 and 1982 and was elected a member of the Académie française in 1973. His many influential works include Tristes Tropiques, Structural Anthropology, Totemism, and Wild Thought, among others. The Press has published many English editions of his works.

Reviews

Beginning with the antagonism between Lynx and Coyote in a Nez Percé Indian myth, eminent French structural anthropologist Lévi-Strauss explores recurrent polarities-e.g., sky versus earth, external reality vs. the body-in myths of the Tlingit, Kwakiutl, Tsimshian and other Amerindian peoples of the Pacific Northwest. He recounts narratives of twins with special powers, of a girl rebelling against marriage, of destructive celestial fire putting an end to the first humans. Unraveling a tangled skein of related myths, with parallels from Brazil, Peru and Mexico, Lévi-Strauss identifies a commonly shared mindset that explains creation in terms of dualistic forces in perpetual disequilibrium. This dense, intriguing study offers the perspectives of one of anthropology's giants on Native American mythology and culture. Photos. (May)