Claude Lévi-Strauss was born in Brussels on 28 November 1908 and died in Paris on 30 October 2009 at age 100.
Claude Lévi-Strauss was born in Brussels on 28 November 1908 and died in Paris on 30 October 2009 at age 100. ◦ He held the chair of Social Anthropology at the Collège de France from 1959 to 1982 and was elected to the Académie française in 1973. ◦ His only ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in Brazil from 1935 to 1939 among the Bororo, Nambikwara, and Tupi-Kawahib. ◦ He became a central figure of structuralist thought, and his relationship with linguist Roman Jakobson in wartime New York was decisive in shaping his theoretical outlook. ◦ ◦
Lévi-Strauss argued that the "savage" mind had the same structures as the "civilized" mind and that human characteristics are the same everywhere, positing that all human minds share the same underlying patterns of thought. ◦ He defined structuralism as "the search for the underlying patterns of thought in all forms of human activity" and sought to reduce the enormous amount of information about cultural systems to what he believed were the essentials—the formal relationships among their elements. ◦ He viewed cultures as systems of communication. ◦ He stated that "The idea behind structuralism is that there are things we may not know but we can learn how they are related to each other. This has been used by science since it existed and can be extended to a few other studies — linguistics and mythology — but certainly not to everything." ◦ He maintained that "Our science arrived at maturity the day that Western man began to see that he would never understand himself as long as there was a single race or people on the surface of the earth that he treated as an object." ◦ He also held that "The work of the painter, the poet or the musician, like the myths and symbols of the savage, ought to be seen by us, if not as a superior form of knowledge, at least as the most fundamental and the only one really common to us all." ◦ He argued that natural species are chosen not because they are "good to eat" but because they are "good to think." ◦ He offered a recurring critique in *Tristes Tropiques* of Western homogenization and the contamination wrought by industrial civilization. ◦
He constructed models based on structural linguistics, information theory, and cybernetics to interpret cultures. ◦ His structuralism was an effort to reduce the enormous amount of information about cultural systems to the formal relationships among their elements. ◦ In *The Savage Mind* (1962) he used the word *bricolage* to describe the patterns of mythological thought: the bricoleur works with his hands in devious ways, puts pre-existing things together in new ways, and makes do with whatever is at hand—signs already in existence used for purposes they were not originally meant for. ◦ He contrasted the bricoleur (the "savage mind") with the engineer (the "scientific mind"): the engineer deals with projects in their entirety, taking into account the availability of materials and creating new purpose-built tools. ◦ He held that mythology functions like the bricoleur, whereas modern Western science works like the engineer. ◦ He believed that "The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions." ◦
He interpreted cultures through models based on structural linguistics, information theory, and cybernetics. ◦ He exposed underlying binary structures in myth, such as the opposition between the raw (nature) and the cooked (culture). ◦ He understood the "savage mind" as sharing the same underlying patterns of thought as the "civilized" mind. ◦ He employed the concept of *bricolage* to describe mythological thought, contrasting the bricoleur with the engineer. ◦ He noted that "The great speculative structures are made to be broken. There is not one of them that can hope to last more than a few decades, or at most a century or two." ◦
He held the chair of Social Anthropology at the Collège de France. ◦ He introduced alliance theory in *The Elementary Structures of Kinship* (1949), arguing that kinship systems are built not just through blood relations but through marriages among different groups, creating social bonds, and that the incest taboo compels groups toward exogamy and reciprocal exchange—the foundational move from nature to culture. ◦ He analyzed hundreds of Native American myths in *Mythologiques* to expose their underlying binary structures. ◦ He constructed models based on structural linguistics, information theory, and cybernetics. ◦ His only ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in Brazil among the Bororo, Nambikwara, and Tupi-Kawahib. ◦
His famous opening of *Tristes Tropiques* (1955) is "I hate travelling and explorers. Yet here I am proposing to tell the story of my expeditions." ◦ That work established his position as a central figure of structuralist thought. ◦ He produced *The Elementary Structures of Kinship* (1949), introducing alliance theory. ◦ His massive *Mythologiques* appeared in four volumes—*The Raw and the Cooked* (1964), *From Honey to Ashes* (1966), *The Origin of Table Manners* (1968), and *The Naked Man* (1971)—analyzing hundreds of Native American myths. ◦ He also published *Totemism* (1962) and *The Savage Mind* (1962). ◦ ◦
He professed hatred for travelling and explorers while proposing to tell the story of his expeditions in *Tristes Tropiques*. ◦ He wrote that "The first thing we see as we travel round the world is our own filth, thrown into the face of mankind," articulating a critique of Western homogenization. ◦ He declared that great speculative structures are made to be broken and cannot hope to last more than a few decades or a century. ◦ He limited the scope of structuralism, stating it can be extended to linguistics and mythology but certainly not to everything. ◦ He held that the scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions, while also holding that the work of the painter, the poet or the musician ought to be seen as the most fundamental and the only one really common to us all. ◦
He expects engagement to prioritize asking the right questions over providing the right answers. ◦ He warns that structuralism can be extended to linguistics and mythology but certainly not to everything. ◦ He insists that no race or people can be treated as an object if Western man is to understand himself. ◦ He values the formal relationships among elements over the sheer accumulation of cultural information. ◦