“We can understand, too, that natural species are chosen not because they are "good to eat" but because they are "good to think."”

— Claude Lévi-Strauss , Totemism

Les espèces sont choisies non commes bonnes à manger, mais comme bonnes à penser.
Totemism (1962), [Le Totémisme aujourd'hui, as translated by Rodney Needham], p. 89
Often paraphrased as "Animals are good to think with".

Original

Les espèces sont choisies non commes bonnes à manger, mais comme bonnes à penser.

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Claude Lévi-Strauss 35

French anthropologist and ethnologist 1908–2009

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