Presence of religion and absence of gods, by: Claude Lévi-Strauss

The hidden character of culture, as it seems to me, manifests in many societies. And all we have to do is look at the layers of priests and groups of magicians, to find something similar to what I have described. And I believe that the rupture I alluded to regarding our societies is not due to these different activities being performed by the same individuals, but to the absence of personal communication among these individuals. Then, the magician in the local community may be specialized in this field, but he remains a neighbor to me, living in the house next door, and I know him; we meet every day and share several interests and worldly matters. And without a doubt, it will not escape my mind that he is a magician, and thus possesses transcendent knowledge, but the relationship between us will not be affected by the element of estrangement present in our societies, which I can illustrate with this simple example of a worker in a Renault factory who will not have the opportunity, and even the rare one, to visit a composer or painter.