2. Philosophy - Stefano Franchi

G AMES AND STRUCTURES
same functions, as in successive card games one periodically shuffles, cuts
deals, plays, and takes the tricks. In other words, one repeats the same rules
in spite of different deals. 2
Lévi-Strauss goes as far as to quote von Neumann and Morgenstern’s work, and he of-
ten presents the theory of games as the ideal language for a possible future science of com-
munication that will unify sociology, economics and linguistics, e.g. the three disciplines
that deal with the issue of the exchange (respectively, of women, goods, and messages)
among human beings. He seldom ventures, though, into a discussion of the basic concepts
of game-theories, limiting himself to present it as a tool that will prove indispensable. One
of the few specific remarks concerns the different goals of parlor games and kinship sys-
tems:
The former are constructed in such a way as to permit each player to extract
from statistical regularities maximal differential values, while marriage
rules, acting in the opposite direction, aim at establishing statistical
regularities in spite of the differential values existing between individuals
and generations. In this sense they constitute a special kind of “upturned
game.” 3
As he immediately adds, however, such a difference does not mean that “societal” games
cannot be treated with the same (game-theoretical) methods. Yet, we are not given further
details on this point, and we have seen above that a precise characterization of the basic
concept of game, strategy, move, etc., is crucial for a proper understanding of game theory.
Edouard Delruelle is the author of one of the few studies on Lévi-Strauss’s work to pay at-
2. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Anthropologie Structurale Deux (Paris: Plon, 1973) 149. Engl. tr. Structural Anthropology,
volume 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976) 124, Lévi-Strauss’s emphasis. The
essay was first published in 1960.
3. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Anthropologie Structurale (Paris: Plon, 1958) 329; Engl. Tr. Structural Anthropology,
(New York: Basic Books, 1963) 298. Lévi-Strauss actual formulation is a bit different, and in
fact more strongly put, than the English translation: ”On pourrait dire que les secondes constituent des
«jeux à l’envers,» ce que ne les empèche pas d’être justiciables des mêmes méthodes.” The same point
about the specificity of “anthropological games” is repeated, in the context of the distinction between
“games” and rites,” in the first chapter of La Pensée Sauvage. See also the “ouverture” of Histoire de
Lynx, which opens the book on a chessboard theme, and the discussion of such a narrative move provided
in the preface: Claude Lévi-Strauss, La pensée savage …Engl. tr. 30-33; Histoire de Lynx (Paris:
Plon, 1991), 20-22 and 9-13; Engl tr. The Story of Lynx (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1995).
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