2 Views of Brazilian Tribal Life
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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 r
. . .
believes that everything he believes as a European Christian is true not only for him but for all people in all lands at all times. He openly declares that his trip to America is a "holy mission . . . to advance the reign of Jesus Christ" (Lery, 1992, 4). This is hardly an attitude for an objective scientist to carry into a foreign land to study a foreign culture.
Levi-Strauss, on the other hand, believes that no culture or religion or cosmology is any more "correct" than any other:
The world began without man and will end without him. The institutions, morals and customs that I shall have spent my life noting down and trying to understand are the transient efflorescence of a creation in relation to which they have no meaning, except perhaps that of allowing mankind to play its part in creation (Levi-Strauss, 192, 413).
Levi-Strauss himself certainly recognizes the inevitable limitations and biases of Lery's 16th century mind-set, and he just as clearly forgives him and takes what he wants from Lery's book and rejects the rest, calling the book "that masterpiece of anthropological literature" (Levi-Strauss, 1992, 83).
Still, it is difficult for the modern reader to accept as scientific or objective in any way such claims by
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Approximate Word count = 1316
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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