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    29 views15 pages

    Levi Strauss

    Uploaded by

    Alina Ene Alina
    magnific

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 15
    Claude Lévi-Strauss TRISTES TROPIQUES Translated from the French by JOHN AND DOREEN WEIGHTMAN PENGUIN BOOKS reindeer nagar nna ‘Renpen Books Ld, 27 Wigs Lane, sacnne a nes eee Fens Bos Casi 0A Agee, enn Bek 029 a0 Waa Ro eben Thain eu patnd te Scatby ‘bes nF Bene 2 Apri Ena roan nr, fo ah clay a andi er ‘td nt nie Ser Cran Bo and ‘soy Ao ech Jom en ben regia, ata ‘Sede auth det wy ieecanerw Se, i paicndon tle ect atretcog ton Seite one sone aa Contents PART ONE. AN END TO JOURNEYING 1. Setting Gut 12. On Hoard Ship 3. The West Indes 4 The Quest for Power 5. Looking Back 6. The Making of an Anthropologist 7. Sunset 8. The Doldrums 9. Gaanabare 10, Crossing the Tropic 28, Sto Paso 12, Towns and Countryside 13. Pioneer Zone 14, The Magie Carpet 35, Crowds 16. Markets xy. Parana 28, Pantanal 19, Nalike 20, A Native Community and its LifeStyle 5 ” 2 is ” 3 o n ” & 8 95 109 7 134 143 ast 153 161 170 178 lade 1, Setting Out of - de hate travelling and explores, Yet here Iam proposing to tll the story of my expedition. But how long it has taken me to make up my mind to doo Tt is now fifteen years since I left Brasil for the last time and all during this period T have often planned to undertake the present ‘work, but on each occasion a sort of shame and repugnance prevented, sme making a start. Why, T asked mysall, should T give a detailed focount of eo many trivial drcumetances and insignificant happenings? _ “Adventure has no place inthe antheopologist's profession; it merely | ‘one of those unavoidable drawbacks, which detract from his effective | vot through the incidental loss of weeks or months; there are hours ‘of inaction when the informant is not avallable; periods of hunger, | ‘exhasstion, scenes perhaps; and always the thousand and one dreary sks which eat away the days to no purpose and reduce dangerous living in the heart of the virgin forest to an imitation of maltary service... The fact that so mich effort and expenditure has to be ‘wasted on reaching the object of our studies bestows no Yale on that ‘spect of our profession, and shouldbe sen rather asits negative sie, ‘The truths which we seek sofa afield only become valid when they have ‘been separated from this dros, We may endure ix months of travel- ling, bardcips and sickening boredom forthe parpose of recording (i few days, or even afew houts) hitherto unknown myth, a new marrage rule ofa complete list of lan names, but is it worth ray while taking “ip my pen to perpetuate sach a useless shred of memory or pitiable. recollection as fhe folowing: ‘At fve thirty in the morning, we entered the harbour at Recife amid the sri exes of the gull, while a eet of boats laden with tropical fruits astered round the bul? ‘Nevertheless, this kind of natative enjoys a vogue which I, for my part, ind incomprehensible. Amazonia, Tibet and Africa fil the book Shops inthe form of travelogues, accounts of expeditions and collections fof photographs, in all f which the desire to impress ie so dominant as tnake it impossible for the reader to assess the value of the evidence Dt befote him, Instead of having his critical faculties stimulated, he {sks for more such pabulum and swallows prodigious quantities of it. ‘Nowadays, being an explorer isa trade, which consists not, as one night)" ‘thinkin discovering hitherto unkown facts afer years of study, but in covering @ great many miles and assembling lantern-sides or motion 8 ax Exp To JouRNEYING pitas, preferably i cl, soto fl all wth an andience for {evel da in sucesso, or thie eudence,platitodes and common: ‘ces seem to have been miraclouly tanimted into revelations by {be sle fact that their author, insted of ding his plagiareng aos spiel saciid by covering some tnt Hound ‘What do we lean from these lustre lectures, and what do we find in the travel books? We are tld the exact number of packing caves that yan required, or about the midemeanours of the ships dog and, interspersed atong the aneolote, ae saps of hackneyed istomation which have appeared in every textbok during the past Sty yar and are presented with remarkbleftenty anette nevrtheles perfectly in keping with he nave and iorace ofthe fodiens) a a evidence or even orignal sre. No doubt tere ase exception, and every prod has had is gene taveles I cold uate oe or two among those wh enjoy public favour atthe present Aine, Bat my aim ie nlter to condemn hones ver to eward diplomas ageninensn, bt rather fo nderstand amoral and socal phenomenon ‘ich is eopeilly pent #o France and, even ere, has made ie "ppearance oly very recent "Fenty years or go, peopl travel very itl and it was not tal ike the Salle ley), fled to capacty ve or se days ening which extended a welcome toler of tales The only place In Pats which eatered for this hind of thing was a smal gloomy, ley and Salted smphithetre in am ancien bing atthe fared ete Sin de Panes There, the Sot de Amie Mastum held ad ‘etaps sl holds weekly lnctures onthe natural sence “The projector, which wasted with inadequate bulb, thew faint images nto am verdarge sree, an the leur, however lzly he peered, could hardly diem ther otlins, whl forthe pubic they were warely stings from the damp stuns onthe walls A {uarer of an hour alter the adverts starting tine, the lecet ‘ould stil be desperately wondering i there would be any acne, yt fom the hundfl organ ated attra hee a these ‘ong the tere rows. Just when be was about to abandon hope, the inetoreroom wooit Al ap tohaifcapacity th cidrn accompanied {by thie mother or nirsemaie, ome eager fra tree change of ete, ethers weary ofthe dust and ole outst, To this mistre of moth taten ghosts and resis Infants the lecturer was privileged —ae the Spree reward for so mich efor, cae and hard work ~ fo reveal is Desows sore of memories, which were permanently edeced by the St he ety awl eu i eae lt sipping sway fom him and faling ey on ie pbs fo the ‘bottom of a well, sepals me sertine our 1» Sveh, then, was the anthropologat’s seta —only a shade more dismal than the ceremony which had marked his departure; this was a banquet given by the Comité France-Amérique in a mansion on what is now the Avenue Franklin Roosevelt; the bulding was uninhabited, and 1 professional caterer, hired forthe eccaion, would arrive two hours ‘belore and setup camp with his stoves, pater and dishes, and yet a

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