The Domestication of the Savage Mind

by Jack Goody

Book Overview

Current theories and views on the differences in the 'mind' of human societies depend very much on a dichotomy between 'advanced' and 'primitive', or between 'open' and 'closed', or between 'domesticated' and 'savage', that is to say, between one of a whole variety of 'we-they' distinctions. Professor Goody argues that such an approach prevents any serious discussion of the mechanisms leading to long-term changes in the cognitive processes of human...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521292425
• ISBN13: 9780521292429
• Release Date: November 1977
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Mind Opening Book

I ran across this title in the bibliography of Jean Bottero's book on Mesopotamia, and am I glad I did. It's short, readable and incisive. In pursuit of the main subject, how literacy alters culture and consciousness, Mr. Goody takes us through a sharp critique of anthropological theory and literature, particularly dualist reductions in classification. Then he examines modern transitions from oral to literate culture in West Africa, and most interesting to me, brings us back to the birth of writing and classification in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. Some trip! This book is not just for social science grad students.