Claude Levi Strauss argues that the thinking of so-called "primitive" societies is not inferior to Western thinking. He believes they engage in disinterested thinking to understand the world around them, using intellectual means similar to philosophers and scientists. While their thinking has a different ambition than scientific thinking, it should not be viewed as coarser or of lesser quality. Civilizations may gain standardization but also lose internal diversity and ways of thinking. The idea of primitive thinking persists in cultures today.

1. Claude Levi Strauss’ ‘Primitive’
Thinking and ‘Civilized’ Mind
By: Prakruti Bhatt

2. Myth and Meaning
• Published in 1978
• A collection of lectures on interpreting myths
and trying to discover their significance for
human understanding.

3. ‘Primitive’ Thinking and ‘Civilized’
Mind
• What do we mean by ‘primitive’?
• Primitive- ‘without writing’
• Mythology as a product of superstitious and
primitive minds- popular belief
• Strauss’ argument: Primitive has been interpreted
in two different ways, both are equally wrong.
• The two ways: 1) Considering such thinking that
of a coarser quality 2) The people we call
‘primitive’ have an inferior way of thinking.

4. Strauss’ Hypothesis
• The people we call ‘primitive’ are capable of
disinterested thinking
• They are moved by a need or desire to
understand the world around them, its nature
and their society.
• To achieve that end they move by intellectual
means, just as a philosopher or scientist.

5. Ending arguments
• Totalitarian ambition of the savage mind is
quite different from the procedures of
scientific thinking.
• The more a civilization becomes homogenized,
the more internal lines of separation become
apparent; and what is gained on one level is
immediately lost on the other.

6. So What?
• The idea of being ‘primitive’ or ‘old fashioned’
continues even today in all cultures.

7. Sources
• http://www.generation-
online.org/p/fplevistrauss.htm
• https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/book
s/100664/myth-and-meaning-by-claude-levi-
strauss/9780805210385/