The Savage Mind

Lévi-Strauss explains that the savage mind is not a particular mind but "rather a mind in its untamed state as distinct from mind cultivated or domesticated for the purpose of yielding a return" (219). The Savage Mind was one of the earliest works of structural anthropology, and it was vastly influential to the general field. The book also influenced the philosophical fields of structuralism and post-structuralism. The application of bricolage to social structure, the unified application of interdisciplinary studies to a single field, directly inspired Jacques Derrida's essay "Structure, Sign and Play". And the notion that social structures can be recontextualized plays a large role in Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's Capitalism and Schizophrenia. "Every word, like a sacred object, has its place. No précis is possible. This extraordinary book must be read" (Edmund Carpenter, New York Times Book Review).