Wild Thought

Claude Levi-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 College de France between 1959 and 1982 and was elected a member of the Academie francaise 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. Jeffrey Mehlman is University Professor of French at Boston University. He is the author of several books, as well as a translator of many texts by Lacan and Derrida, among others. John Leavitt is a translator and professeur titulaire of anthropology at the University of Montreal. He is the author of Linguistic Relativities and the editor of Poetry and Prophecy.

Translators’ Introduction

by John Leavitt

Prospectus for La Pensée sauvage, 1962

Preface

1    The Science of the Concrete

2    The Logic of Totemic Classifications

3    Systems of Transformation

4    Totem and Caste

5    Categories, Elements, Species, Numbers

6    Universalization and Particularization

7    The Individual as Species

8    Time Regained

9    History and Dialectic

Appendix: On the Wild Pansy

Bibliography

Notes to the Translation

Index