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Les Structures elementaires de la Parente. by Claude Levi-Strauss
Audrey I. Richards
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Tue Oct 2 17:31:23 2007
NOS. 12, 13 Man JANUARY, 1952
of displaced persons. Unfortunately the argument for catastrophic when he describes the more directly sociological functions of
droughts, which cannot be demonstrated by palzobotany, depends reciprocal marital relations in binding together the members of
almost entirely upon the contention of the first section, the existence different groups and asks us to consider marriage as one of a whole
in parts of Europe of dry-land houses at two distinct periods, upon series of ties between the men of one line 'cr4anciers en &pauses,'and
ground later submerged. In a final chapter the author applies to a those of the other, the ' lign4e dibitrice.'
sketch of Wiirttemberg his New Picture of Prehistory. It is on arguments of this type that the author bases his view of the
N. K. SANDARS evolution of kinship from 'structures kl4mentaires' which he believes
to be those in which marriages are more or less automatically
Les Structures klkmentaires de la Parentk. By Claude Lkvi- determined by rules of reciprocity to those 111 which there is a free
main thesis or with his analysis of particular systems will yet find irritation of conceptional indigestion and to a sense that this is in
a number of suggestive ideas scattered through the descriptive some ways a transitional book which is bound to lead the author
material. They seem to be struck off almost casually in the into clarifying new positions. I prophesy, however, that the careful
hammering-out of the central theme, and to be struck off in happy research student will find in Les Structures kldmentaires de la Parent6
and often brilliant phrases. Many of these suggestions cannot in the the material for a score or so of interesting Ph.D. theses, and I hope
nature of the case be followed up and I confess to some of the such students will get to work. AUDREY I. RICHARDS
CORRESPONDENCE
Social Anthropology: Past and Present. Cf:MAN,1g50,198,254, is in turn defined by Professor Evans-Pritchard as 'a general body of
271; 1951, 33-5, 62, 78, 120, 150, 199, 250 theoretical knowledge about human societies.'