Levi-Strauss, Anthropology, and Aesthetics (Ideas in Context)

'It is evident that there is great expertise in these pages, and even for the non-anthropologist, much material whose interest it would be hard to deny.' Modern Language Review
In a wide-ranging and original study of Claude Lévi-Strauss's aesthetic thought, Boris Wiseman demonstrates not only its centrality within his oeuvre but also the importance of Levi-Strauss for contemporary aesthetic enquiry. Reconstructing the internal logic of Lévi-Strauss's thinking on aesthetics, and showing how anthropological and aesthetic ideas intertwine at the most elemental levels in the elaboration of his system of thought, Wiseman demonstrates that Lévi-Strauss's aesthetic theory forms an integral part of his approach to Amerindian masks, body decoration and mythology. He reveals the significance of Lévi-Strauss's anthropological analysis of an 'untamed' mode of thinking (pensée sauvage) at work in totemism, classification and myth-making for his conception of art and aesthetic experience. In this way, structural anthropology is shown to lead to ethnoaesthetics. Lévi-Strauss, Anthropology and Aesthetics adopts a broad-ranging approach that combines the different perspectives of anthropology, philosophy, aesthetic theory and literary criticism into an unusual and imaginative whole.
This wide-ranging and original study of Claude Lévi-Strauss's aesthetic thought demonstrates not only its centrality within his overall oeuvre but also the importance of Levi-Strauss for contemporary aesthetic enquiry. Lévi-Strauss, Anthropology and Aesthetics combines the different perspectives of anthropology, philosophy, aesthetic theory and literary criticism into a highly imaginative whole.