The maxim that “animals are good to think with” is widely attributed to Claude Lévi-Strauss, but this attribution massages the facts. In his 1962 book Totemism, Lévi-Strauss wrote that tribal societies choose totem species not because they are “good to eat” (bonnes à manger) but rather because they are “good to think with” (bonnes à penser). This assertion had little to do with animals per se; rather, Lévi-Strauss was refuting the view of  the influential anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski, who regarded totemism as a utilitarian system developed by “savages” for whom “the world is an indiscriminate background against which there stand out the useful, primarily the edible, species of animals or plants.” In subsequent decades, Lévi-Strauss’ description of animals as bonnes à penser broke loose of its original context and became something of a motto for scholars doing work on animal studies. (The phrase “good to think with” has also taken on a life of its own, with scholars applying it to everything from machines to fire to cheese—one might say that “good to think with” is good to think with.)