Tristes Tropiques

Tristes Tropiques is a 1955 memoir by French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. Translated into English as “Sad Tropics,” it recounts his travels and research, most of which took place in Brazil, India, and the Caribbean in the early 1900s. For its attention to the distinct memories of travel and broad geographical coverage, the work is sometimes categorized as a travelogue; however, it delves also into Levi-Strauss’ emotions and philosophy, which changed along the way. Levi-Strauss draws on a large knowledge base to articulate his personal views through the lens of memory, incorporating the studies of geology, history, literature, music, political science, and sociology.

The memoir is split into nine parts. Part 1 consists of a brief introduction, where the author declares, “I hate traveling and explorers.” Here, he establishes himself as a nomad and an ideological contrarian who strives to defy categorization. Part 2 describes his journey to becoming an anthropologist and includes a long essay describing a single sunset and the state of transcendence it momentarily instilled in Levi-Strauss. Part 3 discusses different traditions of urban design, casting a broad net over North and South America. He focuses particularly on the Brazilian city of São Paulo, analyzing its architecture and planning.

Part 4 continues Levi-Strauss’s analysis of Brazil, incorporating vivid imagery of its flora and fauna. He also describes India; in particular, its epidemic of deep poverty, which he traces to the discontents and moral failures of its caste system. Levi-Strauss gives a highly comprehensive anthropological account of Indian life that seeks to tie together its economics, history, and sociology. Parts 5 through 9 are each concerned with a different Brazilian tribe: respectively, Caduveo, Bororo, Nambikwara, and Tufi-Kawahib. They consist of more focused anthropological analyses drawn from extended field studies. Levi-Strauss, along with several other researchers, spent months in close quarters with members from these tribes, gaining first-hand knowledge about their cultures and beliefs. Levi-Strauss’s main conclusion is that each tribe is incredibly unique despite its Brazilian identity, from its religious practices, to its village design, to its prevailing conceptions of marriage.



Part 9, which Levi-Strauss titles “The Return,” is a reflection on his anthropological work, characterizing his life after his many years of travel. It closes with an unfinished, allegorical play called “The Apotheosis of Augustus.” The play, written in a style not unlike stream of consciousness, connects anthropology to religion, morality, and spirituality. This section departs from the more analytical and retrospective style and content of the rest, giving instead an impression of Levi-Strauss’s spiritual self.

Tristes Tropiques is a memoir difficult to classify as distinctly scientific, philosophical, or social. The thread that ties it together is Levi-Strauss’s intense interest in conveying the universal richness of lived experience. He proposes few, if any, real solutions to the tragedies he encounters, but ends with the suggestion that the unifying task of humankind is the endless quest to redeem itself from suffering. Tristes Tropiques is a distinctly modern take on individual memory and its relationship to the vast and complicated world.