The Savage Mind Author(s): Julian Pitt-Rivers Source: Man, New Series, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Jun., 1968), pp.

300-301 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2798508 Accessed: 13/12/2010 12:05
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nature. Ifthis is whattheauthor intended itis curiously forhe -hasnot written expressed, soit de la culture (ou de la Evenbefore theappearance oftheletters of 'exclusivement etc.). . . soitdemanifestations. . .' but Stewart andNeedham in your previous num- societe, ber (Man (N.S.) 3, 125-6) thetranslation of 'soit culture..., soit ... societe, c'est 'a dire . . .' He ... ou de manifestations La pense'e sauvage was becoming a matter of desrapports been at painsto guardagainst international concern.Among othersthe has evidently Stewart forces upon publishers have receivedtherewas even a the veryinterpretation passage. courteous missive from Japanpointing out this What is the reasonfor thiswilfulmismisprints. (They could not acknowledge it Stewart refuses to acceptthe because thewriter signed hisnameonlyinthe interpretation? Levi-Strauss givesto Japanese script.) As theperson towhomitfell wordsin thesensethat he thinks, in commonwith to undertake the main task of editingthe them.I suspect anthropologists, that culture andsociety translation, I am grateful to youforallowing many withmen'srelations with me to thank those who havecalledattention arebothconcerned andas suchcanbe opposed to their to errors andfor theopportunity to comment eachother withtheir environment represented on thedivergent judgements thathave been relations bytechnical andeconomic factors. Thiswould passedon it. externalto something Needham have make these factors (Man)andGorer (Observer) society andthus restrict theconcept ofsociety commended thetranslation for itsfaithfulness. This view Nettl (New Statesman) praisedit without to therulesof socialintercourse. the taken by those who favour qualification and evenhad a good word for is commonly But thisis not Levithestyle. Geertz (Encounter) on theother hand term'socio-cultural'. standpoint as anyonewho has read found it execrable. Leach(New York Review Strauss's anthropology knows. Stewart believes of Books) suggested that Geertz andNeedham Structural in the translation werebothright. Stewart now maintains that thathe can detecterrors Alas! thetranslation is wrongand nonsensical, but withouteven lookingat the French. outhe still has thepassage copying he failsto convinceNeedham.To explain Even after enough. such contradictions one mustexaminethe notlookedat it closely In his illustration has followed i) Stewart basesofthese various judgements, butletme theFrench and givesat thecostof faithfully first comment on Stewart's. a moreexactrendering thanthe He givesthree illustrations in justification clumsiness, as it stands, takes a certain which, ofhisview.Taking his translation them in reverse order, with thetext. But,as Needham rightly complaint against thethird isjustified: liberty passage to a doesnot amount out,this liberty a complete has been points line of the manuscript of the author'sthoughts. omitted-'with a definitive and readily misrepresentation to take Indeed, it is sometimes necessary apprehended model,but rather' witha .... in order to avoida heavy witha text Thisis obviously a printer's error (allbetween liberties forwhatis a legitimate rhetorical the two 'with's has been omitted) and my gallicism, in French may turnout in a literal attention has already been called to it, to- figure as a pleonasm. intoEnglish and rendering withthe errors in the diagrams gether Thereare probably better ways to transwitha number of misprints whichare,I am sugthan those late the passagescited,but Stewart's sorryto say, more numerous do notappearto me to contain recordedby Mr Stewart.Such errorsare gestions any His servicesas a the translation,concreteimprovements. hardly enoughto condemn are invaluable;as a translator but only the preparation of the book for proof-reader forhe failseven to it theyarousemisgivings, publication; by an unfortunate oversight on which his criterion was never sent to a professional proof-reader.meet the apparent is based:literal exactitude. It is to the judgement Stewart's illustrations 2) and i) concern that it is not thecriterion translation. The error he detects in 2) is that be notedhowever who disapproves of thetranslation 'exclusivement' not theopposition of Geertz qualifies, ineffect he complains ' culture'versus'soci6te', but 'culture' or fortheopposite reason; ' societe"', summed up togetheras men's thattheworkhas not been put intodecent relations witheach other, versus phenomena readableEnglish.He comparesThe savage transwiththe'sensitive' ofa technical order which unfavourably oreconomic might mind on theother tropiques (which seemrather men'srelations with lationof Tristes to concern The savage mind
SIR,

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harshcomment fromGorer As our Japanese endedhis hand received correspondent when it appearedon the groundsof its letter, Peace. I admire thetransLike Geertz inaccuracy). Julian fromthe pointof Pitt-Rivers lationof Tristes tropiques desHautes Qtudes, withGorer tcolePratique butI haveto admit viewofstyle, accurate. Paris itis notvery that a choice The translator facesall too often theoriginal shallhe render like Cassandra's: underexactlyand fail to get its meaning Psychologyand social anthropology he givea plausible stood?Or shall paraphrase thereader to makethe SIR, which willnotrequire (Man (N.S.) 2, a modeofthought unfamiliar In his replyto my article effort to master didnotconfront themain indeedask: whybother 2I6-25) Gluckman to him?One might who will issues I raised, butinstead the at all iftheonlyreaders elected to treat to translate as a matter of semantics. He are those who can read the disagreement understand handa loosetranslation purports to resolve a longstanding 'muddle' On theother original? thosewho relyon it. in the use of theword 'psychology' which serves onlyto confuse and Americanscholars from is hardly whatwe keeps British Levi-Strauss Bowdlerised An entirely successful 'Kennedy uses the word needin English. trans- communicating: to cover any reference of accuracy, "psychological" to lation must meet the criteria ideas,beliefs and style, but Leach emotions, and mental processes, comprehensibility ispossible in thecaseof and also to covertheories of this in the science wonders whether he is right. No one psychology, while Devons and I ... use La pense'e sauvage. Perhaps translation "psychological" onlyto describe statements a satisfactory has yet suggested about relations evenofthetitle. betweeneventswithinthe whichwill be framework to theniisprints of a scienceof psychology, and In addition the fol- propose"psychical"to describe in subsequent emotions, corrected printings, will also be made: ideas,etc.,in individual psyches' (Gluckman lowingcorrections toprevent p. 62, lineI3; for'carveelephants' footprints I968: 20). This'muddle'is alleged in' read 'carve out elephants' that 'reality' is footprintsme from understanding from'. andthat different socialsciences neutral, study p. I36, end of line 22; following 'with a' the sameevents, but 'seek to establish diffand readily insert: 'definitive apprehended erent sets ofrelations between them'. witha'. modelbutrather I plead guilty to a dual use of the word p. 2I6, line 5; for 'Old-bison's-used-hoof''psychological'but disavow the muddle, read'Old-bison's-worn-hoof'. and claim that my meaningin each case p. 225, line I5; for'solutionof continuity' is clear from thecontext. The realissue, howread'breakin continuity'. divisions ever, concerns thearbitrary andrigid tomakeclear thereferent whichformthe boundaries that p. 269: in order of the different of 'it' is thesavagemindtheword order social sciences.These seem to have been of thelastsentence of thebook should be based upon historical and common sense changed to read: ' . . . when we recognise decisions, ofconas wellas mind-body types it alone couldhave ceptualdualisms, rather thanupon inherent that, by an encounter in its most differences the scientific foreseen, spirit The separation of subject matter. will have contributed modern form ...'. of psychology fromthe otherbehavioural Minorcorrections will be made on pp. I07, hashistorically sciences beenuseful, butnow I24, i68, I69, I92. The diagrams (pp. ii5, 83) only servesto hinderfurther advances. As in accordance will be corrected with the Gluckman often socialscientists deal admits, thatis to say: on page s5, with'psychic'events, original edition, as in all and in this, all plus signs(+) shouldbe indicators of their to analyse 'social' behaviour, attempts inequality (?), and in the seconddiagram they make assumptionsabout 'human on the same page the vertical lines should nature' and about how the 'psychic' apin each case,not the signs, connect but the paratusworks. Often these psychological words'species'and 'group'.On page 83,the statements are based upon an unconscious lefthand smalloval containing 'B' should familiarity of psychoanalysis, withprinciples 'D'. contain behaviouristic are psychology, etc.,butthese I wouldliketo apologise to thereaders of unsystematic, and unadmitted. unexamined, theoriginal printing for failing to detect these Some psychology is fundamental to any slipsbefore thebook wentto press. I do not sociological and psychology is basic theory, dareto hope thatthelistis complete and I to all behavioural sciences. Thus,it seemsto wouldwelcome notice ofanyother instances me thatgreatbenefit from may be derived where thesense oftheoriginal mayhavebeen admitting andfacing the the fact consequences. betrayed. Thisdoesnotmeanthat all analyses which