Tristes Tropiques

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Claude Lévi-Strauss

Atheneum, New York, 2012; originally published 1955, French, English

Nonfiction, General

ISBN: 9780689105722

This watershed work records Claude Lévi-Strauss's search for "a human society reduced to its most basic expression." From the Amazon basin through the dense upland jungles of Brazil, Lévi-Strauss found the societies he was seeking among the Caduveo, Bororo, Nambikwara, and Tupi-Kawahib. More than merely recounting his time in their midst, Tristes Tropiques places the cultural practices of these peoples in a global context and extrapolates a fascinating theory of culture that has given the book an importance far beyond the fields of anthropology and continental philosophy. The author's fresh approach, sense of humor, and openness to the sensuous mystique of the tropics make the scientific thrust of the book eminently accessible.

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Jorge Silvetti

On Jorge Silvetti’s Book List

The second book that came to mind in making my list for Designers & Books. The best comprehensive, multi-genre book (literature-history-science-autobiography) I have ever read.

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