Race and History · Race and Culture (Collected Works of Lévi-Strauss)

Author: Claude Lévi-Strauss
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-21
Features: This book is part of the "Collected Works of Lévi-Strauss," translated from the UNESCO edition of 2001, and is a compilation of two essays by the author. In the book, the author offers a theoretical critique of the rampant racist theories of the 1940s and 1950s, while pointing out that any culture, no matter how insignificant, is a holder of part of the common heritage of humankind and should be preserved for the sake of cultural diversity. The author attempts to combine the concept of progress with cultural relativism. His relativism acknowledges the rationality of any culture and holds that no standard can absolutely judge one culture as superior to another.