The more we claim to discriminate between cultures and customs as good and bad, the more completely do we identify ourselves with those we would cond… - Claude Lévi-Strauss

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The more we claim to discriminate between cultures and customs as good and bad, the more completely do we identify ourselves with those we would condemn. By refusing to consider as human those who seem to us to be the most “savage” or “barbarous” of their representatives, we merely adopt one of their own characteristic attitudes. The barbarian is, first and foremost, the man who believes in barbarism.

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About Claude Lévi-Strauss

Claude Lévi-Strauss (28 November 1908 - 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theory of structuralism and structural anthropology.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Klod Levi-Stros Claude Levi-Strauss Claude Gustave Levi-Strauss Lévi-Strauss, Claude קלוד לוי-שטראוס

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Additional quotes by Claude Lévi-Strauss

Our students wanted to know everything: but only the newest theory seemed to them worth bothering with. Knowing nothing of the intellectual achievements of the past, they kept fresh and intact their enthusiasm for 'the latest thing'. Fashion dominated their interest: they valued ideas not for themselves but for the prestige that they could wring from them.

La tolérance n'est pas une position contemplative, dispensant les indulgences à ce qui fut ou à ce qui est. C'est une attitude dynamique, qui consiste à prévoir, à comprendre et à promouvoir ce qui veut être.

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À quoi sert d'agir, si la pensée qui guide l'action conduit à la découverte de l'absence de sens? Mais cette découverte n'est pas immédiatement accessible: il faut que je la pense, et je ne puis la penser d'un seul coup. Que les étapes soient douze comme dans le Boddhi; qu'elles soient plus nombreuses ou qu'elles le soient moins, elles existent toutes ensemble, et, pour parvenir jusqu'au terme, je suis perpétuellement appelé à vivre des situations dont chacune exige quelque chose de moi: je me dois aux hommes comme je me dois à la connaissance.

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