We Are All Cannibals: And Other Essays (European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism)

We Are All Cannibals: And Other Essays, trans. Jane Marie Todd, Columbia University Press, 2016 "On Christmas Eve 1951, Santa Claus was hanged and then publicly burned outside of the Cathedral of Dijon in France. That same decade, ethnologists began to study the Indigenous cultures of central New Guinea, and found men and women affectionately consuming the flesh of the ones they loved. "Everyone calls what is not their own custom barbarism," said Montaigne. In these essays, Claude Lévi-Strauss shows us behavior that is bizarre, shocking, and even revolting to outsiders but consistent with a people's culture and context. These essays relate meat eating to cannibalism, female circumcision to medically assisted reproduction, and mythic thought to scientific thought. They explore practices of incest and patriarchy, nature worship versus man-made material obsessions, the perceived threat of art in various cultures, and the innovations and limitations of secular thought. Lévi-Strauss measures the short distance between "complex" and "primitive" societies and finds a shared madness in the ways we enact myth, ritual, and custom. Yet he also locates a pure and persistent ethics that connects the center of Western civilization to far-flung societies and forces a reckoning with outmoded ideas of morality and reason." -- Provided by the Publisher "On Christmas Eve 1951, Santa Claus was hanged and then publicly burned outside of the Cathedral of Dijon in France. That same decade, ethnologists began to study the indigenous cultures of central New Guinea, and found men and women affectionately consuming the flesh of the ones they loved. "Everyone calls what is not their own custom barbarism," said Montaigne. In these essays, Claude Lévi-Strauss shows us behavior that is bizarre, shocking, and even revolting to outsiders but consistent with a people's culture and context. These essays relate meat eating to cannibalism, female circumcision to medically assisted reproduction, and mythic thought to scientific thought. They explore practices of incest and patriarchy, nature worship versus man-made material obsessions, the perceived threat of art in various cultures, and the innovations and limitations of secular thought. Lévi-Strauss measures the short distance between "complex" and "primitive" societies and finds a shared madness in the ways we enact myth, ritual, and custom. Yet he also locates a pure and persistent ethics that connects the center of Western civilization to far-flung societies and forces a reckoning with outmoded ideas of morality and reason."--Publisher information Table of Contents 6 Foreword, by Maurice Olender 8 Part 1: Santa Claus Burned as a Heretic, 1952 12 Part 2: We Are All Cannibals, 1989–2000 30 1. “Topsy-Turvydom” 32 2. Is There Only One Type of Development? 37 3. Social Problems: Ritual Female Excision and Medically Assisted Reproduction 48 4. Presentation of a Book by Its Author 60 5. The Ethnologist’s Jewels 68 6. Portraits of Artists 75 7. Montaigne and America 83 8. Mythic Thought and Scientific Thought 87 9. We Are All Cannibals 94 10. Auguste Comte and Italy 101 11. Variations on the Theme of a Painting by Poussin 110 12. Female Sexuality and the Origin of Society 116 13. A Lesson in Wisdom from Mad Cows 123 14. The Return of the Maternal Uncle 131 15. Proof by New Myth 138 16. Corsi e ricorsi: In Vico’s Wake 144 Notes 150 Index 156 About the Author 166 The Foremost Anthropologist Of The Twentieth Century Uses Compelling Examples From History And Contemporary Life To Challenge The Criteria By Which We Judge Others. Claude Lévi-strauss Measures The Short Distance Between Complex And Primitive Societies And Finds A Shared Madness In The Ways We Enact Myth, Ritual, And Custom.