''The Raw and the Cooked'' (1964) is the first volume from ''
Mythologiques'', a
structural
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such ...
study of
Amerindian
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.
Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...
mythology written by French
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms an ...
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthr ...
. It was originally published in French as '. Although the book is part of a larger volume, Lévi-Strauss writes that it may be appreciated on its own merits, stating that he does not consider this first volume a beginning "since it would have developed along similar lines if it had had a different starting point".
In the introduction, Lévi-Strauss writes of his confidence that "certain categorical opposites drawn from everyday experience with the most basic sorts of things—e.g. 'raw' and 'cooked,' 'fresh' and 'rotten,' 'moist' and 'parched,' and others—can serve a people as conceptual tools for the formation of abstract notions and for combining these into propositions." Beginning with a
Bororo
The Bororo are indigenous people of Brazil, living in the state of Mato Grosso. They also extended into Bolivia and the Brazilian state of Goiás. The Western Bororo live around the Jauru and Cabaçal rivers. The Eastern Bororo ( Orarimogodoge) ...
myth, Lévi-Strauss analyses 187 myths, reconstructing sociocultural formations using
binary opposition
A binary opposition (also binary system) is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the system of language and/or thought by which two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one ...
s based on sensory qualities. The work thus presents an adaptation of
Ferdinand de Saussure's theories of structural linguistics applied to a different field.
[Brenner, Art. "The Structuralism of Claude Levi-Strauss and the Visual Arts." Leonardo 10.4 (1977): 303-06.]
See also
*
Culinary triangle
The culinary triangle is a concept described by French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss involving three types of cooking: boiling, roasting, and smoking, usually done to meat.
Boiling meat is seen to be a cultural form of cooking because it u ...
References
1964 non-fiction books
Anthropology books
French non-fiction books
Works by Claude Lévi-Strauss
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