Claude Lévi-Strauss

French anthropologist and ethnologist (1908-2009) · France · Academics · Died at 100

Claude Lévi-Strauss is read about 1,233 times a day, in 75 languages.

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He dismantled the idea that so-called primitive societies think differently than we do.

Academics Academic Philosophy Politics Photography Literature France Europe

A life in dates

2009Died30 October 2009“The idea behind structuralism is that there are things we may not know but we can learn how they are related to each other.”In their words4 November 2009As quoted in his obituary, Daily Telegraph (4 November 2009)Read the whole statement

2007Order of Cultural Merit (Brazil)Award2005Catalonia International PrizeAward2003Meister Eckhart PrizeAward1996Aby Warburg PrizeAward1993Grand Prix de la Société de GéographieAward1986International Nonino PrizeAward1981Commandeur des Arts et des LettresAward1979Honorary Doctorate at the Laval UniversityAward1977Honorary Doctor of the University of UppsalaAward1973Erasmus PrizeAward1967CNRS Gold medalAward1965Huxley Memorial MedalAward1964“These facts make the creator of music a being like the gods, and make music itself the supreme mystery of human knowledge.”In their wordsMythologiques I: Le cru et le cuit (1964)Read the whole statement

1955“Teaching and research are not to be confused with training for a profession. Their greatness and their misfortune is that they are a refuge or a mission.”In their wordsChapter 6 : The Making of an Anthropologist, p. 55Read the whole statement

“Not only does a journey transport us over enormous distances, it also causes us to move a few degrees up or down in the social scale.”In their wordsChapter 9 : Guanabara, p. 86Read the whole statement

“One must be very naïve or dishonest to imagine that men choose their beliefs independently of their situation.”In their wordsChapter 16 : Markets, p. 148Read the whole statement

1952“Humanity is confined to the borders of the tribe, the linguistic group, or even, in some instances, to the village ....”In their wordsRace and History (1952), p. 12Read the whole statement

1908Born28 November 1908

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Levi-strauss 260 (cropped2)

Claude Lévi-Strauss (1973)

Prins Bernhard reikt de Erasmusprijs uit aan prof. Claude Levi Strauss in het Tr, Bestanddeelnr 926-4411 (cropped)

Prins Bernhard reikt de Erasmusprijs uit aan prof. Claude Levi Strauss in het Tr, Bestanddeelnr 926-4411

Claude Levi Strauss in Tropenmus, Bestanddeelnr (cropped)

Claude Lévi-Strauss KNAW

Claude Lévi-Strauss no Museu Nacional (cropped)

In their own words 10

Claude Lévi-Strauss

10 statements, newest first

The idea behind structuralism is that there are things we may not know but we can learn how they are related to each other.
Nov 4, 2009, As quoted in his obituary, Daily Telegraph (4 November 2009), Own words
The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.
1975, The Raw and the Cooked : Introduction to a Science of Mythology (1975) Vol. I, [Le Cru et le Cuit, as translated by Doreen and John, Own words
These facts make the creator of music a being like the gods, and make music itself the supreme mystery of human knowledge.
1964, Mythologiques I: Le cru et le cuit (1964), Own words

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Awards

Order of Cultural Merit (Brazil)2007

Catalonia International Prize2005

Meister Eckhart Prize2003

Aby Warburg Prize1996

Grand Prix de la Société de Géographie1993

International Nonino Prize1986

Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres1981

Honorary Doctorate at the Laval University1979

Honorary Doctor of the University of Uppsala1977

Erasmus Prize1973

CNRS Gold medal1967

Huxley Memorial Medal1965

Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour

Commander of the National Order of Merit

Commander of the French Order of Academic Palms

Commander of the Order of the Crown

Grand Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit

Commander of the Order of the Southern Cross

Honorary Doctorate from Columbia University

Honorary doctor of the University of Oxford

Honorary Doctor of Harvard University

Honorary Doctorate from the Université de Montréal

Fellow of the British Academy

Family

Parents

Claude Lévi-Strauss

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About this person

Born in Belgium in 1908, Lévi-Strauss came to anthropology through fieldwork that led him away from European certainties. His 1955 book Tristes Tropiques made the case plainly: the "savage" mind and the "civilized" mind operate on identical principles, hunting for pattern and order in myth, kinship, and symbol. That insight became the backbone of structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthropology at the Collège de France from 1959 to 1982, entered the Académie française in 1973, and collected honors across continents. He died in Paris in 2009, a month shy of 101, having spent a century watching structuralism reshape the humanities and then recede, his central claim still standing.

Country

France

In common with Claude

Amartya SenBoth received Meister Eckhart Prize Amitai EtzioniBoth received Meister Eckhart Prize

Eva IllouzBoth received Aby Warburg Prize

Michel SerresBoth received Meister Eckhart Prize

Carlo GinzburgBoth received Aby Warburg Prize

Richard RortyBoth received Meister Eckhart Prize

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