Le'vi-Strauss: How to strip wit & conten

Read, Dwight ANTHRO (Read@ANTHRO.SSCNET.UCLA.EDU)
Sun, 27 Aug 1995 17:29:00 PDT

Klein suggests the following:

"We can understand, too, that natural species are chosen not because
they are good to eat, but because they are good to think with."

That's the translation I would have suggested, as well, as
Levi-Strauss is concerned with the interplay between natural relationships
among species and relationships among social groups, with the former providng
a means to construct and express models relevant to the latter. There is an
active sense of thinking that is involved that is not captured as effectively
by the expression "good thinking."

D. Read
READ@ANTHRO.SSCNET.UCLA.EDU