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Claude Good to Think?
Greg Finnegan (finnegan@HUSC.HARVARD.EDU)
Wed, 23 Aug 1995 09:56:31 -0500
Re Sativa Quinn's query:
>Did Levi-Strauss ever write, "Animals are good to eat, and to think=
with."
>
What L-S wrote was:
"We can understand, too, that natural species are chosen=
[as
totems] not because they are 'good to eat' but because they are 'good=
to
think.'" =20
p. 89, TOTEMISM. Boston: Beacon Press, 1963. =20
He's just said, in the previous sentence, that "[regarding] animals=
in
totemism=8Atheir perceptible reality permits the embodiment of ideas=
and
relations conceived by speculative thought on the basis of empirical
observations." So Quinn's paraphrase "good to think WITH" is correct=
in
the sense that animals prominence and variety of observable traits=
make
them 'good' stimuli for, and illustrations of, a culture's attempts=
to
understand its world and organize that understanding into a system.=
=20
In my librarian persona, I should note that I found the quote (which=
I
mis-remembered as from PENSEE SAUVAGE) by checking references to=
L-S in
Marvin Harris and Eric Ross' FOOD AND EVOLUTION: TOWARD A THEORY=
OF HUMAN
=46OOD HABITS (Temple UP, 1987), because, having spotted it on the=
shelf, it
seemed likely to me they'd review everyone's prior notions about=
"good to
eat." And they did indeed use the quote.
Gregory A. Finnegan, PhD
Associate Librarian for Public Services
and Head of Reference
Tozzer Library
Harvard University
21 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge MA 02138-2089
617-495-2253 fax 617-496-2741
gregory_finnegan@harvard.edu
"For whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man, never yet was=
put into
words or books." MOBY-DICK, chapter 110.
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