LEVI-STRAUSS - MAN

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>LEVI-STRAUSS</FONT><BR> THE STRUCTURAL ANTHROPOLOGIST</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Man</B></FONT><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>WE DESTROY OURSELVES</B></FONT><P> <TABLE ALIGN=Left BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=2 CELLPADDING=1> <TR> <TD><IMG ALIGN=Left SRC="2408a.jpg" WIDTH="250" HEIGHT="219" ALT="GLOBALISATION"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> In seeking "le pensee sauvage", Lévi-Strauss is not accepting the evolutionist view that "one set of savages is like another" and that "primitive mentality" was a less logical mode of thinking rightly superseded as man "progressed". It was such thinking that encouraged the continued destruction of primitive cultures and the drive toward a global monoculture. If this were allowed to happen there would be no space for the "archaeologist" to explore, no way to gain proper perspective of our own values. The remains of primitive cultures still offered Europeans a mirror in which they could see their secret face. Their loss means the loss of the pathway to knowledge.<BR clear=left><BR> <FONT SIZE=4><B>AGAINST MONOCULTURE</B></FONT><BR> What structural anthropology offers is a mechanism for man to examine himself from a distance and outside of a historical framework. This distance provides an objectivity lacking in the method of introspection encouraged by French philosophy, which Lévi-Strauss condemns. Lévi-Strauss compares western civilization to a virus, reproducing itself by forcing others to copy its formula. "What will happen" he asks, "when our own civilization has transformed all other living civilizations into its own image? Will the riches we have accumulated in books and museums, the vestiges of ancient individualism, suffice to nourish the human spirit?"<P> <CENTER><IMG SRC="2408b.jpg" WIDTH="350" HEIGHT="135" ALT="LAS VEGAS"></CENTER> <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>