Claude Levi-Strauss
THE OTHER FACE OF THE MOON: Essays on Japan
and
ANTHROPOLOGY CONFRONTS THE PROBLEMS OF THE MODERN WORLD
Translated from the French by Slavica Miletić
First edition: 2013
216 pages, Price: 700 dinars
Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-2009) was one of the best known and most influential anthropologists of the twentieth century. His most important works have been translated into Serbo-Croatian: The Savage Mind (translated by B. Jelić, Beograd: Nolit, 1963), Totemism Today (translated by b. Čolak-Antić and I. Čolović, Beograd: XX Vek and BIGZ, 1979), Mythologica I-IV (volume 1, The Raw and the Cooked, translated by D. Udovički, Beograd: Prosveta and BIGZ, 1980; volume 2, From Honey to Ashes, translated by B. Lukić, Beograd: Prosveta and BIGZ, 1982; volume 3, The Origin of Table Manners, translated by S. Stojanović, Beograd: Prosveta and BIGZ, 1983; volume 4, The Naked Man, translated by P. Sekeruš, Novi Sad: Prometej, 2011), Structural Anthropology (translated by A. Habazin, Zagreb: Stvarnost, 1989, and Tristes Tropiques (translated by S. Miletić, Beograd: Zepter Book, 1999).
The Other Face of the Moon and Anthropology Confronts the Problems of the Modern World are two short, posthumously published (2011) books by Levi-Strauss. With the consent of the author’s wife and the original publisher, Biblioteka XX Vek is releasing our translation of both in one volume. The Other Face of the Moon countains eight texts, written between 1979 and 2001, which the author dedicates to Japan: «The Place of Japanese Culture in the World,» «The Hidden Face of the Moon,» «The White Hare of Inaba,» «Herodotus in the China Sea,» «Sengai: The Art of Accomodating Oneself to the World,» «Domesticating Strangeness,» «The Shameless Dance of Ame No Uzume,» and «An Unknown Tokyo.» The the Japanese anthropologist Junzo Kawada says in the introduction, in these texts «we encounter Levi-Strauss in love with Japan.» Anthropology Confronts the Problems of the Modern World contains the texts of three lectures Levi-Strauss held in Japan in 1986, «The End of the West’s Cultural Supremacy,» «Three Great Contemporary Problems: Sexuality, Economic Development, and Mythic Thought,» and «Recognizing Cultural Diversity: What We Can Learn from Japanese Civilization.»