Claude Levi-Strauss
Claude Levi-Strauss, (1908- ). French anthropolist a pioneer of the intellectual approach known as structuralism. After his studies at the Sorbonne he taught sociology in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and undertook several expeditions to study the Amazon Indians. He subsequently worked in New York and Paris, becoming professor of anthropology at the College de France in 1960. In his studies Levi-Strauss interpreted complex anthropological data in terms of a few basic structural models – such as binary oppositions and hierarchies – that he considered to underlie all human thinking. This approach, which he adapted from modern linguistics, later proved highly influential throughout the humanities. Levi-Strauss’s works include The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949) and Mythologies (1964-71). He was appointed to the Legion d’honneur in 1991.
