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2 Views of Brazilian Tribal Life

Claude Levi-Strauss in Tristes Tropiques and Jean de Lery in History of A Voyage to the Land of Brazil offer two views of Brazilian tribal life separated by some four hundred years. Both authors are guided by Eurocentric consciousness in their analysis of Brazilian people, and although Levi-Strauss (writing in the 1950s) deeply admires the groundbreaking work of Lery (writing in the 1550s), he has been inevitably enlightened somewhat by four centuries of anthropological development. For example, Levi Strauss recognizes the role which Europeans have played in the deterioration of Brazilian tribal life, resulting in "debilitated communities" which "have been shattered by the development of European civilization . . . which, for a widespread and innocent section of humanity, has amounted to a monstrous and incomprehensible cataclysm" (Levi-Strauss, 1992, 326). This is not to say that Levi-Strauss does not carry certain Eurocentric biases with him in his journey through Brazil. He does, after all, refer to the people as "savages" as does Lery, but Levi-Strauss also makes clear a definite respect for their culture. For example, Levi-Strauss writes that "Few peoples are as deeply religious as the Bororo, and few have such a complex metaphysical system" (Levi-Strauss, 1992, 230). Levi-Strauss accepts and appreciates the tribal reality for its own sake without comparing it to European reality.

Lery, however, approaches the "savages" as incredible curiosities in need of being saved religiously, socially, and otherwise by Europeans. Lery judges the people of Brazil purely according to European standards. With respect to religion, for example, Lery writes of the Tupinamba that they are "utterly ignorant of the sole and true God" and "being ignorant of the creation of the world, they do not distinguish the days by names" (Lery, 1992, 134). Levi-Strauss, on the other hand, complains that a native has undergone "an attempt to make him go through ...

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2 Views of Brazilian Tribal Life. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 12:42, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1700603.html