Levi-Strauss, Anthropology, and Aesthetics

Edited by Boris Wiseman

In a wide-ranging and original study of Claude Lévi-Strauss's aesthetic thought, Boris Wiseman demonstrates not only its centrality within his oeuvre but also the importance of Levi-Strauss for contemporary aesthetic enquiry. Reconstructing the internal logic of Lévi-Strauss's thinking on aesthetics, and showing how anthropological and aesthetic ideas intertwine at the most elemental levels in the elaboration of his system of thought, Wiseman demonstrates that Lévi-Strauss's aesthetic theory forms an integral part of his approach to Amerindian masks, body decoration and mythology.

The Cambridge Companion to Lévi-Strauss

Edited by Boris Wiseman

Claude Lévi-Strauss is one of the major thinkers of the modern age. Regarded as a crucial figure in the development of structuralism, his writings are studied across a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, philosophy and literary studies. The Cambridge Companion to Lévi-Strauss presents a major reassessment of his work and influence. The fifteen specially-commissioned essays in this volume engage with the controversies that have surrounded his ideas, and they probe the concealed influences and clichés that have obscured a true understanding of his work.

Forthcoming

Claude Lévi-Strauss

Christopher Johnson

Claude Lévi-Strauss, the most celebrated of twentieth-century anthropologists, has influenced the entire field of the humanities and social sciences. Looking at the formative part of his career, Christopher Johnson examines his definitions of anthropology; theory of structuralism; ideas on modern and "primitive" civilizations; and autobiographical writing. This book explains Lévi-Strauss' thought and explores the different intellectual contexts that influenced it.

About the House

Edited by Janet Carsten

The domestic unit is inseparable from its homestead, and the "house," at once a physical place and a social unit, is often also a unit of production and consumption, a cult group, and even a political faction. Inspired by Lévi-Strauss' suggestion that the multi-functional noble houses of Medieval Europe were simply the best-known examples of a widespread social institution, the contributors to this collection analyze "house" systems in Southeast Asia and South America, exploring the interrelationships among buildings, people, and ideas. They reveal some of the ways in which houses can stand for social groups and serve as images of process and order.