Levi-Strauss on Religion : The Structuring Mind

ISBN-13: 9781845532772 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 132 str.

Paul-Francois Tremlett

Opis

Claude Levi-Strauss and the style of thinking known as 'structuralism' with which his work is conventionally associated is widely recognized as having made a seminal contribution to the discipline of anthropology. More generally, his writings register the turn to language in social theory in the 1960s, and are marked by the influence of Kant, Rousseau, Saussurian linguistics, Marx and Freud. In turn, Levi-Strauss is recognized as having been a key influence on thinkers such as Althusser, Lacan, Foucault and Derrida. This volume seeks to address a key gap in the burgeoning secondary literature about Levi-Strauss: his importance to the study of religions. This volume pays particular attention to Levi-Strauss' writings on totemism, myth and "la pensee sauvage" situating these writings both in terms of previous theories of religion and in terms of the wider influences that informed his work. This volume provides an accessible and comprehensive overview of Levi-Strauss' life and work, the thinkers and theories that informed his writings, and his contribution to the study of religions.

Spis treści

PrefaceIntroductionChapter one: Levi-Strauss, linguistics and structuralismChapter two: kinship as communicationChapter three: the illusion of totemismChapter four: myths without meaning?Chapter five: structuralism, shamanism and material cultureChapter six: the structure of nostalgiaChapter seven: Levi-Strauss and the study of religions

O autorze

Paul-François Tremlett is a Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University.