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PETER CAWS
that "structuralism" would have taken as its task the analysis of such
objects in terms of the interrelation of their elements, by contrast to
the "functionalism" of Malinowski, for example, which conducted its
analyses in terms of social and psychological purpose. There is in fact
an anthropological structuralism of precisely this sort, associated mainly
with the name of Radcliffe-Brown. But the obvious structures,
while not unimportant, are not what Levi-Strauss is chiefly interested
in. For him the really significant structures are beneath the surface,
as it were - although all such spatial metaphors are dangerous–
and may have a series of quite different embodiments at the level
of apparent structure. A remark in his address to a Conference of
Anthropologists and Linguists at Indiana in 1953 gives one of the
clearest early indications of the line structuralist thought was to
take. After commenting on the similarity of problems encountered
in the two fields he said:
... we have not been sufficiently aware of the fact that
both
lan–
guage and culture are the product of activities which are basically
similar. I am now referring to this uninvited guest which has been
seated during this Conference beside us, and which is
the human
mind.
The event which has brought structuralism most vividly to the
attention of the English-speaking world has been the recent publica–
tion of a translation of Levi-Strauss'
La Pensee sauvage.
l
It
has been
pointed out by a number of critics that the translation of the title
(The Savage Mind)
is unfortunate, and in fact it manages, with a
single literalism, to throw the emphasis off to a quite extraordinary
degree. The book is about systems of thought in so-called primitive
societies, and the "savage" mind suggests a contrast with the "civi–
lized" mind to be found in more "advanced" societies. All the terms
in quotes, at least to the extent that they suggest a hierarchy of
value (as they inevitably do) would be rejected by Levi-Strauss. The
trouble with "savage" in English is that it now has only one level
of meaning; while it was once possible to use the term in a more or
less descriptive way ("the friendly savages") it has come to mean
hopelessly uncivilized or downright ferocious.
"Sauvage,"
on the other
hand, has the connotations of "wild" in English as it applies to plants
1.
THE SAVAGE MIND. By Claude Levi-Strauss. University of Chicago
Press. $5.95.
