Maurice Godelier Knihy

Groundbreaking examination of the relationship between thought, economy and society.

Exploring the evolution of social and economic systems, this work delves into the reasons behind their emergence and decline over time. It examines historical patterns, providing insights into the dynamics that influence societal structures and their sustainability. Through a comprehensive analysis, the book highlights the interplay between various factors, such as culture, politics, and technology, shaping the fate of these systems across different eras.

A masterwork of the anthropology of kinship by the heir to Levi-Strauss

Focusing on the Baruya, a tribal society from the highlands of Papua New Guinea, this book offers an in-depth exploration of their cultural practices and social structures. It serves as a valuable resource for scholars and students of anthropology, providing rich insights into the lives and traditions of this unique community.

One of the world's leading anthropologists assesses the work of the founder of structural anthropology

Exploring the close relationship between the real and the symbolic and imaginary What you imagined is not always imaginary, but everything that is imaginary is imagined. It is by imagining that people make the impossible become possible. In mythology or religion, however, those things that are imagined are never experienced as being imaginary by believers. The realm of the imagined is even more real than the real; it is super-real, surreal. Lévi-Strauss held that "the real, the symbolic and the imaginary" are three separate orders. Maurice Godelier demonstrates the contrary: that the real is not separate from the symbolic and the imaginary. For instance, for a portion of humanity, rituals and sacred objects and places attest to the reality and therefore the truth that God, gods or spirits exist. The symbolic enables people to signify what they think and do, encompassing thought, spilling over into the whole body, but also pervading temples, palaces, tools, foods, mountains, the sea, the sky and the earth. It is real. Godelier's book goes to the strategic heart of the social sciences, for to examine the nature and role of the imaginary and the symbolic is also to attempt to account for the basic components of all societies and ultimately of human existence. And these aspects in turn shape our social and personal identity.

Exploring the role of the incest prohibition in human societies