Social and Cultural Anthropology

A review essay on Claude Levi-Strauss's Le Regard eloigne ([The View from Afar], Paris: Plon, 1983 [see IRPS No. 29/85c00528 & 85c00529); Emmanuel Todd's La Troisieme Planete. Structures familiales et systemes ideologiques ([The Third Planet: Familial Structures and Ideological Systems], Paris: Le Seuil, 1983); & L'Enfance du monde. Structures familiales et developpement ([The Childhood of the World: Familial Structures and Development], Paris, Le Seuil, 1984); Agnes Audibert's Le Matriarcat breton ([The Breton Matriarchy], Paris: PUF, 1984); La Naissance, le mariage, la mort en Anjou, dans la premiere moitie du XXe siecle ([Birth, Marriage, and Death in Anjou, in the First Half of the Twentieth Century], Angers: Cahiers de l'IPSA, 1984, 8 Feb); R. Bernard's, M. Buisson's, J. Camy's, L. Roulleau-Berger's, & G. Vinvent's Education, fete et culture ([Education, Festival and Culture], Presses Universitaires de Lyon, CNRS-ERA 631, U Lyon II); A. Fillod's & P. Pages's Temps et saisons. Dictons de la sagesse populaire ([Time and Seasons: Sayings of Popular Wisdom], Saint Vidal: Centre d'etudes de la vallee de la Borne, 1983); Francoise Loux L'Ogre et la dent. Pratiques et savoirs populaires relatifs aux dents ([The Ogre and the Tooth: Popular Practices and Knowledge Relating to Teeth], Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1981); Claude Kappler's Monstres, demons et merveilles a la fin du Moyen Age ([Monsters, Demons and Marvels at the End of the Middle Ages], Paris: Payot, 1980); Norma Cohn's Demonolatrie et sorcellerie au Moyen Age. Fantasmes et realites, ([Demon Worship and Sorcery in the Middle Ages: Fantasies and Realities], Paris: Payot, 1982); Roland Villeneuve's Les Proces de sorcellerie ([The Witchcraft Trials], Paris: Payot, 1979); & Gerard Hayart-Neuez's Croyances. Magies et sorcellerie, d'hier et d'aujourd'hui ([Beliefs: Magic and Sorcery, Yesterday and Today], Le Coteau: Ed. Horvath, 1983 [see listings in IRPS No. 34]). Some anthropological works dealing with beliefs prevalent in the Middle Ages, & also some customs that still survive today in some parts of the world, are examined. Devil worship, the ever-presence of monsters, the menace of teeth, the hope of magical solutions to difficulties all seem to have provided extremes of ecstacy & terror that fulfilled certain basic human needs. It seems clear that human nature has changed very little since the Middle Ages, & the failures of modern life to supply nourishment for the imagination is evident in the poverty