Anthropologie structurale
13 plates and 23 in-text illustrations.
Printed review copy.
Signed presentation inscription: “À Monsieur Max-Pol Fouchet, en très sincère hommage, Claude Lévi-Strauss.”
Published in February 1958, this collection of essays constitutes the foundational manifesto of structuralism in anthropology. Claude Lévi-Strauss sets out his method and founding insights, notably the idea that human societies are governed by unconscious structures analogous to those of language. From kinship systems to myths, from the analysis of totems to the laws of reciprocity, an entirely new intellectual continent opens up for reflection.
More than a mere scholarly work, Anthropologie structurale represents an epistemological turning point: the moment when the human sciences ceased to be merely descriptive and became analytical. The book met with considerable success, both in academic circles and among the cultivated general public, and marked Lévi-Strauss’s entry into the select circle of the great thinkers of the twentieth century.
A rare first printing, a review copy, lacking the price on the cover, as issued for this particular printing.
Slight loss to the spine, otherwise a good copy.