Thursday 5 November 2009

Claude Levi Strauss



A voice is silenced.
Claude Levi Strauss, anthropologist, ethnologist, scientist, philosopher was a seeker of a certain understanding about humans and their relation with their environment, their language, their behavior.
Born in 1908 he died on 31st of October 2009 just before his 101's birthday.
100 years of a lifetime is something. But 100 years of fruitful, knowledge collecting, revolutionary ideas producing, sharing in teaching and publishing; that is a life well spent.

"We are in a world that I don't belong to anymore. The one I knew and cared for was of 1,5 billion humans, today we are over 6 billions. It is not my world anymore." he says in one of his recent interviews.
But his intellectual impact is a treasure in deciphering primitive tribes in the Amazon forest and their way of life. He worked on myths and symbols. He opened science to other cultures and concluded that, with its own rationale, no culture is superior to the other.
He viewed the confusion between material progress and  superiority in civilization as being infatued with one's own self and a mistake for the mind.
In his humble ways, he has found in the most primitive societies: "A pure form of the elements, diversity of beings, the grace of nature and the decency of men".

1 comment:

Cheryl/Isis Initiative said...

Thank you for this perspective, Sarah. I'm so happy to discover your blog and your writing.
isisinitiative.wordpress.com