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Tristes tropiques Review

This book is really a number of books in one - a diatribe against the New World vis a vis the Old World, time spent with the natives in South America, and a bemoaning of the lack of progress by Mankind in its development.
His comparison of the New and Old Worlds is probably quite apt - the Old World, with its social and physical structures evolved during a slower moving time and "was made to last". The New World came when progress was increasing much more quickly, new materials became available, and social and physical structures were relatively short term. His description is probably reasonably accurate, but I would have thought a little more thought as to the reasons and causes would have helped (along with a little more gratitude to the New World for giving him a home, all the while he was grizzling about them!)

His accounts of his time with the various South American native groups I found disjointed, purely narrative, little rationale for the few conclusions that he did try to draw, and, in his descriptions of the various components of the Bororo society in Chapter 23, almost fanciful.

Finally, as though he had put together the first two parts of the book for some other purpose, he launches into a different dialogue about the progress of mankind. He compares Islam society with the society of France, in that both have become fossilised at a time some centuries before, continuing to believe that what they evolved at those much earlier times should still stand them in good stead for the future. Although, in some ways the most interesting of the three parts, this last was to a large extent contradictory to the views espoused in the first part - in the latter he bemoaned the progress of mankind, and in the former he bemoaned the lack of progress of mankind.

All in all, interesting read, but a little disappointing.

Tristes tropiques Overview

First published in 1955, Claude Levi-Strauss's accounts of his researches among the peoples of the Amazon is a fascinating study and influential in understanding the organization of human society. He writes of myths and superstitions, modern cities and ancient villages, and each page is packed with anecdotes and observations. Photos & illus.

Tristes tropiques Specifications

"I hate travelling and explorers," famously declared Claude Lévi-Strauss, but how fortunate for readers that he should overcome his loathing to write about his experiences among the indigenous peoples of the Brazilian interior, including the Caduveo, Bororo, and Nambikwara tribes. Those who know Lévi-Strauss and Tristes Tropiques by reputation only will be pleasantly surprised by the intimate tone that colors even its most precise anthropological sections, as well as the autobiographical passages at the beginning, in which the author recounts how he fell into his career and how, shortly after the Nazis occupied Paris, he was forced to flee to America in a grueling sea voyage. Twenty-five black-and-white photographs of tribespeople, as well as numerous line drawings, accompany the text.

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Customer Reviews

Tristes Tropiques - Bruce E. Arthurs - CA
Mildly interesting (now 1/3 through it).
Very detailed with long run-on sentences.
Hopefully it will get better.

Truly a Unique Masterpiece - David Toner - Austin, TX
After disdaining 'travel writing' Levi-Strauss went on to write a masterpiece that among many other things is ultimate travel writing. This is a rich feast of past and lost worlds and cultures, of nature, an entire chapter beautifully describing the ocean sky at sunset, a vivid description of the ocean's doldrums, and then of course, the story of the people of the Amazon basin and the upland rain forests. All of this, prefaced by a horrific account of escaping the Nazi regime. Definitely a book to savor.

Origins and Man - Mr. Steiner - New York
While I have little to say about the anthropological veracity of this seminal text, I am capable of recognizing its vast aesthetic and intellectual beauty. Levi-Strauss places himself (or inserts himself), in a number of so called 'savage' tribes in Brazil- the Caduveo, Bororo, Nambikwara, and Tupi-Kawahib. This is also an anthropological memoir, Levi-Strauss retraces his training in philosophy to his break and subsequent beginnings as a professor of anthropology in Brazil. This is a universal text by a man searching for universal structures of meaning. He poses questions that remain central to the role of the anthropologist to this day. How can the observer not also be an intruder? What is the basic object of inquiry? Can one avoid proselytizing ones subject? Levi-Strauss is searching for the purely human society, which he finds perhaps most completely in the Nambikwara. "Whether traditional or degenerate, this society offered one of the most rudimentary forms of social and political organization that could possibly be imagined." Is this search an essential rejection of the West? In the final analysis, Levi-Strauss laments the eventual disintegration of the purely human society. A beautiful an important (albeit dated) text.

Echos of Burckhardt & Preminitions of Foucault - S. Pactor - San Diego, CA United States
I stumbled upon this book, but I did enjoy reading it. I can handle myself in the presence of digressive french academia, though I don't go out of my way to engage it. This book is positively breezy tone, but at the same time it's kind of an intellectual mission statement for Levi-Strauss. To me, the main point is that the romantic savage doesn't exist and man is a social/civilized being from the most primitive roots. A sentiment I agree with, and a sentiment borne out by his less-then-thorough anthropological field work in Brazil.

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Monday, September 6, 2010