Tristes Tropiques
Encyclopedia
Tristes Tropiques is a memoir
, first published in France
in 1955, by the anthropologist and structuralist
Claude Lévi-Strauss
. It documents his travels and anthropological work, focusing principally on Brazil
, though it refers to many other places, such as the Caribbean
and India
. Although ostensibly a travelogue
, the work is infused with philosophical reflections and ideas linking many academic disciplines, such as sociology
, geology
, music
, history
and literature
. The title literally means The Sad Tropics, but was translated into English by John Russell as A World on the Wane.
Parts 1 to 3 details Lévi-Strauss' reflections on leaving Europe
and visiting the New World
and the Tropics
, comparing his first impressions with subsequent visits, relating aspects of his academic training as well as his work as a professor during the founding years of São Paulo University.
Part 4 'The Earth and its Inhabitants' sets out a geographical analysis of the development of South American settlements, as well as an aside into social structure in India and what is now Pakistan
.
Parts 5 through 8 each focus on a Native Brazilian
culture group: Caduveo (or Guaycuru), Bororo
, Nambikwara
and Tupi-Kawahib respectively, while touching on many other topics.
Part 9 'The Return' closes the book with reflections on, among other themes, the nature and purpose of anthropology
, the effects of travel
on the mind, the roles of Buddhism
and Islam
in global culture, humankind's place in the universe and our connections to the world and to one another.
and in general the narrative is highly reflexive
, often critiquing itself or the author and reader's assumed pretensions, such as a thirst for the 'exotic'.
Though the writing style is fluid, almost conversational at times, the structure of the text is extremely complex, linking together numerous places, times and ideas. For example, Part One: 'An End to Journeying' connects Lévi-Strauss' first trip to Brazil in 1935 with his escape from France
to New York
in 1941 and his later visits to South America
, in a stylistic imitation of memory
.
Lévi-Strauss frequently makes connections between ostensibly diverse entities or ideas to underline a point. For example, in Chapter 14, he compares the ancient cities of the Indus valley with those of the USA in the mid-twentieth century, implying that Mohenjo-Daro
and Harappa
could be imagined as foreshadowing contemporary Chicago
or São Paulo
'after a prolonged period of involution in the European chrysalis'.
The work maintains an elegiac and poetic tone, lamenting a 'lost' New World but is tempered by a strong ambivalence, perhaps a product of the paradoxical idealized status of the anthropologist as a 'detached observer'
who nevertheless remains engaged as a human participant.
In its assessments of the impact of development on the environment
, the 'shrinking' of the world through travel
and tourism
and the consequent emergence of a form of 'monoculture'
, Tristes Tropiques seems remarkably prescient.
lamented that they were not able to award Lévi-Strauss the prize because Tristes Tropiques was technically non-fiction. Georges Bataille
wrote a favourable review and Susan Sontag
classed it as one of the 20th century's 'great books'.
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
, first published in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 1955, by the anthropologist and structuralist
Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist, and has been called, along with James George Frazer, the "father of modern anthropology"....
. It documents his travels and anthropological work, focusing principally on Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, though it refers to many other places, such as the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Although ostensibly a travelogue
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
, the work is infused with philosophical reflections and ideas linking many academic disciplines, such as sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
and literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
. The title literally means The Sad Tropics, but was translated into English by John Russell as A World on the Wane.
Contents
The book consists of 36 chapters, organised into nine sections.Parts 1 to 3 details Lévi-Strauss' reflections on leaving Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and visiting the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
and the Tropics
Tropics
The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...
, comparing his first impressions with subsequent visits, relating aspects of his academic training as well as his work as a professor during the founding years of São Paulo University.
Part 4 'The Earth and its Inhabitants' sets out a geographical analysis of the development of South American settlements, as well as an aside into social structure in India and what is now Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
.
Parts 5 through 8 each focus on a Native Brazilian
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
The Indigenous peoples in Brazil comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country prior to the European invasion around 1500...
culture group: Caduveo (or Guaycuru), Bororo
Bororo people
The Bororo or Bororo-Boe people live in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil; they also extended into Bolivia and the Brazilian state of Goiás. The Western Bororo, now extinct, lived around the Jauru and Cabaçal rivers...
, Nambikwara
Nambikwara
The Nambikwara is an indigenous people of the Brazilan Amazon. Currently ca. 1,200 Nambikwara live in federal reservations in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso along the Guaporé and Juruena rivers...
and Tupi-Kawahib respectively, while touching on many other topics.
Part 9 'The Return' closes the book with reflections on, among other themes, the nature and purpose of anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
, the effects of travel
Travel
Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
on the mind, the roles of Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
in global culture, humankind's place in the universe and our connections to the world and to one another.
Style
The opening sentence, 'I hate traveling and explorers', is notable for its ironyIrony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
and in general the narrative is highly reflexive
Reflexivity (social theory)
Reflexivity refers to circular relationships between cause and effect. A reflexive relationship is bidirectional with both the cause and the effect affecting one another in a situation that does not render both functions causes and effects...
, often critiquing itself or the author and reader's assumed pretensions, such as a thirst for the 'exotic'.
Though the writing style is fluid, almost conversational at times, the structure of the text is extremely complex, linking together numerous places, times and ideas. For example, Part One: 'An End to Journeying' connects Lévi-Strauss' first trip to Brazil in 1935 with his escape from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1941 and his later visits to South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, in a stylistic imitation of memory
Memory
In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
.
Lévi-Strauss frequently makes connections between ostensibly diverse entities or ideas to underline a point. For example, in Chapter 14, he compares the ancient cities of the Indus valley with those of the USA in the mid-twentieth century, implying that Mohenjo-Daro
Mohenjo-daro
Mohenjo-daro is an archeological site situated in what is now the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Built around 2600 BC, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, and one of the world's earliest major urban settlements, existing at the same time as the...
and Harappa
Harappa
Harappa is an archaeological site in Punjab, northeast Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal. The site takes its name from a modern village located near the former course of the Ravi River. The current village of Harappa is from the ancient site. Although modern Harappa has a train station left from...
could be imagined as foreshadowing contemporary Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
or São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
'after a prolonged period of involution in the European chrysalis'.
The work maintains an elegiac and poetic tone, lamenting a 'lost' New World but is tempered by a strong ambivalence, perhaps a product of the paradoxical idealized status of the anthropologist as a 'detached observer'
Participant observation
Participant observation is a type of research strategy. It is a widely used methodology in many disciplines, particularly, cultural anthropology, but also sociology, communication studies, and social psychology...
who nevertheless remains engaged as a human participant.
In its assessments of the impact of development on the environment
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
, the 'shrinking' of the world through travel
Travel
Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
and tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
and the consequent emergence of a form of 'monoculture'
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
, Tristes Tropiques seems remarkably prescient.
Critical reception and influence
Apparently the book was well-received on its publication. The organizers of the Prix GoncourtPrix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"...
lamented that they were not able to award Lévi-Strauss the prize because Tristes Tropiques was technically non-fiction. Georges Bataille
Georges Bataille
Georges Bataille was a French writer. His multifaceted work is linked to the domains of literature, anthropology, philosophy, economy, sociology and history of art...
wrote a favourable review and Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
classed it as one of the 20th century's 'great books'.
External links
—full text of 1961 English translation by John RussellVideo
- Documentaire 52': About "Tristes Tropiques" 1991 - Film Super 16