Editing The Raw and the Cooked

{{Short description|1964 book by Claude Lévi-Strauss}}
{{For|the Fine Young Cannibals album|The Raw & the Cooked (album)}}
{{Infobox book
| name             = The Raw and the Cooked
| image            = File:The Raw and the Cooked (French edition).jpg
| caption          = Cover of the first edition
| author           = [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]]
| title_orig       = Le Cru et le cuit
| translator       = John and Doreen Weightman
| illustrator      = 
| cover_artist     = 
| country          = 
| language         = 
| series           = [[Mythologiques]]
| subject          = 
| publisher        = Plon
| publisher2       = 
| pub_date         = 1964
| english_pub_date = 
| media_type       = Print
| pages            = 402 pp.
| awards           = 
| isbn             = 978-2-259-00413-8
| oclc             = 4955922
| dewey            = 
| congress         = 
| preceded_by      = 
| followed_by      = 
}}

'''''The Raw and the Cooked''''' (1964) is the first volume from ''[[Mythologiques]]'', a [[Structuralism|structural]] study of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Amerindian]] mythology written by French [[anthropologist]] [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]]. It was originally published in French as ''{{lang|fr|Le Cru et le Cuit}}''.<ref>The English translation of the title ''Le Cru et le Cuit'' is not incorrect, but it is perhaps incomplete. "Cuit"  in French does not necessarily mean "cooked", but is also used to denote "done" or "prepared", which is not necessarily obtained by cooking. In this case, Strauss' use of ''cuit'' implies what culture and society do to the raw and make it 'done' or 'cooked'.</ref> Although the book is part of a larger volume, Lévi-Strauss writes that it may be appreciated on its own merits, stating that he does not consider this first volume a beginning "since it would have developed along similar lines if it had had a different starting point".<ref>Maquet, Jacques. Rev. of The Raw and the Cooked: Introduction to a Science of Mythology. Vol. 1, by Claude Lévi-Strauss. Technology and Culture 11.4 (1970): 613-15.</ref>

In the introduction, Lévi-Strauss writes of his confidence that "certain categorical opposites drawn from everyday experience with the most basic sorts of things—e.g. 'raw' and 'cooked,' 'fresh' and 'rotten,' 'moist' and 'parched,' and others—can serve a people as conceptual tools for the formation of abstract notions and for combining these into propositions." Beginning with a [[Bororo (Brazil)|Bororo]] myth, Lévi-Strauss analyses 187 myths, reconstructing sociocultural formations using [[binary opposition]]s based on sensory qualities.<ref>{{cite book|last=Makaryk|first=Irena R.|title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches, Scholars, Terms|year=1993|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|isbn=978-0-8020-6860-6|pages=200, 404|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CTJCiLG9AeoC&q=%22the+raw+and+the+cooked%22&pg=PA200}}</ref> The work thus presents an adaptation of [[Ferdinand de Saussure|Ferdinand de Saussure's]] theories of structural linguistics applied to a different field.<ref>Brenner, Art. "The Structuralism of Claude Levi-Strauss and the Visual Arts." Leonardo 10.4 (1977): 303-06.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Culinary triangle]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Claude Lévi-Strauss}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raw And The Cooked}}
[[Category:1964 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Anthropology books]]
[[Category:French non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Works by Claude Lévi-Strauss]]
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