R.I.P. Claude Levi-Strauss

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  11.03.09 | 1:11 PM ET

The famed structural anthropologist has died at 100. We blogged about his 100th birthday—and some of his travel-related accomplishments—just under a year ago:

Travel lit readers know him in part from his 1955 travel memoir of sorts, Tristes Tropiques, which begins with the memorable line, “I hate travelling and explorers.” More importantly, as NPR points out, Levi-Strauss “changed the world’s perception of so-called ‘primitive’ tribes in Asia, Africa and America.”


Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


2 Comments for R.I.P. Claude Levi-Strauss

Halle Eavelyn 11.03.09 | 10:02 PM ET

Au revoir, Monsieur Levi-Strauss.  I loved his quote - “Not a year goes by without my receiving an order for jeans” - sounds like he had a sense of humor about it, too.  How much he must have seen in his century of life!

shubhinetwork 11.07.09 | 6:13 AM ET

hello…...
    Cultural anthropology was my field of study at university, and Strauss always loomed large as a revolutionary figure to be both admired and challenged. I was deeply affected by his work, including and perhaps especially the parts of his work with which I disagreed. Every time I stumbled across one of his plethoric dichotomous juxtapositions, my intellect would instantly rebel with an expansive notion of spectrum.

It is nonetheless probably not hyperbole to say there would be no Shakesville if there had not been a Strauss.
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