Definitions HQ

Man (n.) is, ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠for Lévi-Strauss, the animal that builds systems of signs and then mistakes them for reality itself.

Man (n.) is, ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠for the Bororo, not an individual, but a person. He is necessarily part of a sociological universe.

Man (n.) must ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠be studied from afar: to study men you look close at hand, but to study man you must first observe differences in order to discover what all share.

Man (n.) carries ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠along every position he has held and every one he will hold: he is everywhere at once, a crowd surging forward abreast, forever recapitulating all its earlier stages.

Man (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not just a thinking being, but also a constructing creature, albeit a rather amateurish one, like a handyman or jack-of-all-trades in his untidy shed, and he makes order out of the chaos that surrounds him with the aid of any tool that comes to hand.