Although they were delivered over half a century apart, the two lectures collected in this book reflect each other: they trace a wide circle, the circle of the public discourse of the most famous French anthropologist.

The first lecture is delivered in front of the CGT executives and is titled "A Revolutionary Science: Ethnography". Having gone through a long journey as a member of the socialist party, Levi-Strauss now turns his interest to the lives of exotic, primitive, impoverished, neglected peoples who inhabit the margins of history and the periphery of geography. Levi-Strauss highlights the paradox of the modern ethnographer: in the eyes of his own society, he appears progressive, while "in the field" he behaves as a conservative, as what interests him primarily are traditions, inherited customs, and primitive practices.

The second text, published here, dates back to 1992 and is dedicated to Montaigne and, secondarily, to Jean de Lery. The most well-known aspect of Montaigne is that of the celebrator of otherness, the man who early on realized that, alongside our own, there are other, very different "humanities", which, precisely because they are equal members of the present world and enrich it with their presence, deserve all our appreciation and respect.

His writings demonstrate a constant concern to keep the reader close, not to abandon him on the road. Not by demeaning the language, but by putting it at its full service, that is, by serving it. Levi-Strauss thus positions himself in opposition to the countless authors of our time who write as they speak and speak as it happens. He is the last classic.