Tradizione collettiva e invenzione individuale: Lévi-Strauss e lo studio dello sciamanismo

Abstract

The year 1949 has been of crucial importance in the life of Claude Lévi-Strauss, both for his academic career and for the theoretical development of his thought. In this phase of alternative possibilities and afterthoughts, he published two texts about shamanism, which became the classic references for every scholar interested in this phenomenon. These texts reveal profound reflections, innovative solutions, originality and easiness in facing up big theoretical questions. They show as well a thought in the making, which begins to explore new fields and topics of research, and which is evaluating his own strengths and interests. However, Lévi-Strauss will quickly decide to abandon the study of rituals and shamanistic practices, choosing to devote his research to the systems of thought: totemism, classification systems, and, at last, mythical thought, a topic to which he will be devoted until the end of his long scientific career.