ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost I would like to thank my brother Hugo, whose contribution through many conversations and e-mail exchanges, as well as close readings of various drafts, was immense. I would also like to thank the late Professor Lévi-Strauss for meeting and corresponding with me, as well as allowing me access to his field notes and a manuscript of Tristes Tropiques. Professor Lévi-Strauss’s family kindly granted permission to use fieldwork images from the 1930s, as well as family portraits. Of the many people who shared their thoughts on the work of Professor Lévi-Strauss I would like to thank the late Rodney Needham, Philippe Descola, Anne-Christine Taylor, Alban Bensa, Jean-Patrick Razon, Dan Sperber, Marcelo Fiorini, Stephen Nugent, John Sturrock, John Hemming and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro.

I am grateful for a research grant from The Society of Authors, which funded one of my trips to France. A traveling fellowship from the Winston Churchill Trust gave me the opportunity to visit the region where Lévi-Strauss carried out his fieldwork. Special thanks go to Alfeu França for enduring a five-thousand-kilometer drive along the potholed roads of the Brazilian central west during this trip. In Mato Grosso, my thanks go to Ivar Busatto, Anna Maria and José Eduardo da Costa and João dal Poz.

I would also like to thank my agent, David Godwin, who from the outset believed passionately in this book and whose enthusiasm drove the project forward. At Penguin, thanks go to my editor, Laura Stickney, for her astute comments and the fantastic work of the production editor, Noirin Lucas. My editor at Bloomsbury, Bill Swainson, provided invaluable input, and production editor Emily Sweet nurtured the manuscript into print in the UK. Staff at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, the British Library in London, along with the Museu do Índio and the Museu de Astronomia e Ciências Afins in Rio de Janeiro provided professional assistance throughout.

I wrote sections of this book in Brazil, where I enjoyed the attentive hospitality of Maria Alice França, Zenir de Paula, Laura and Edyomar Vargas de Oliveira Filho. In London, Leila Monterosso helped my family through a difficult but inspiring phase of our life in 2008. As ever, my family in Australia has been a source of constant encouragement. I am also grateful for the contribution of Helen and Paul Godard in Nîmes.

Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Andreia, for her unconditional love and support throughout the long and bumpy process that book writing entails. Our daughter, Sophia, appeared halfway through the writing of this book and over the last two years steered it to its conclusion.