Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture,   ISBN:9780805210385

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This book was hard to put down. While it's a very short text, it has really whet my appetite for more of his books. I would also recommend this book as an introduction to the work of Lévi-Strauss.
Something that makes the book so accessible is that, as explained in the first few pages of the text, his ideas are simplified because he is discussing his ideas in English (his second language). However, they still maintain a richness that I think would be lost if someone else were to try to translate or simplify his ideas.

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This is the perfect summary of Levi-Strauss' thinking. It's an edited transcript of a series of lectures he made, and recapitulates the essence of his work. There's no easier or faster way to understand this seminal social scientist, either as an introduction to his other works or as a refresher.

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Meaning and Myth is a short collection of Levi-Strauss' lectures. It is remarkable because it gives insight into the thoughts of this famous anthropologist. The recorded lectures were given orally, which creates new respect for the genius of a man who could speak so fluently and eloquently in a language that is not his native tongue.

If you have no interest in anthropology, you will probably not enjoy the book, but if you have a stong interest, this is a great way to start to understand the mind of one of the world's greatest anthropologists.

Also, the foreword by Wendy Doniger was one of the funniest, cleverest, most insightful forewords I have read. This surprised me immensely since I usually hate any part of a book not written by the author.

I highly recommend "Mening and Myth: Cracking the Code of Culture" if you have an academic interest in the subject of anthropology and are looking for a starting point.

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The book is a recommended introduction to anthropology and the theories of Levi-Strauss. Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture describes, among other things, how some myths have certain attributes common in between them and how they would evolve. The author describes how in certain cultures twins are viewed as evil and theories how that might have evolved. At the end, the book discusses how myths should be interpreted.

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MYTH AND MEANING is a short and easily-digestible work based on a series of interviews and discussions delivered by the venerable French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss and broadcast by Canadian radio in 1977. Its informal and conversational style (based on his responses to a series of questions posed by the CBC producer who is interviewing him) allows us broad-stroke insight into Lévi-Strauss's development of structuralism and his theories about science.

A self-professed "non-scientist" with a strong interest in science, Lévi-Strauss begins by outlining the divergence between science and "mythical and mystical thought" which began to occur around the 17th century in European intellectual traditions. The result is, we are lead to believe, that we have somehow lost something: something we may yet strive to regain or at least try to understand better.

Lévi-Strauss makes the argument that `primitive' thought is as rich and complex as so-called `civilized' thought, debunking various functionalist and traditional viewpoints that deny the savage mind has the ability to think both disinterestedly and intellectually. "In order for a culture to be really itself... its members must be convinced of their originality and even... of their superiority over the others." Mythical thinking may be the originality that we have lost in modern life.

One gets the sense that Lévi-Strauss develops his theories as he speaks-extemporaneously. He almost admits as much in his introduction: "I forget what I have written practically as soon as it is finished... I have the feeling that my books get written through me and that once [finished], I feel empty and nothing is left." Some of his explanations of particular myths, though entertaining, are a bit "out there" and border implausibility. One may reproach him for his methods or dispute his theories, but no one can deny that MYTH AND MEANING provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of this original and controversial thinker.

Jeremy W. Forstadt