“In the case of European towns, the passing of centuries provides an enhancement; in the case of American towns, the passing of years brings degeneration. It is not simply that they have been newly built; they were built so as to be renewable as quickly as they were put up, that is, badly.”

— Claude Lévi-Strauss , book Tristes Tropiques

Source: Tristes Tropiques (1955), Chapter 11 : São Paulo, p. 95

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Claude Lévi-Strauss 35

French anthropologist and ethnologist 1908–2009

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“In the case of European towns, the passing of centuries provides an enhancement; in the case of American towns, the passing of years brings degeneration. It is not simply that they have been newly built; they were built so as to be renewable as quickly as they were put up, that is, badly.”

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Claude Lévi-Strauss 35

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