Born: 28 November 1908 · Died: 30 October 2009 · Age at death: 100
How old was Claude Lévi-Strauss when he died?
Claude Lévi-Strauss died aged 100. He was born on 28 November 1908 and died on 30 October 2009.
French anthropologist who pioneered structuralism in the social sciences
Did you know?He spent several years living in Brazil, where he conducted extensive field research among indigenous tribes in the Amazon.
Quick facts
Date of birth28 November 1908
Date of death30 October 2009
Age at death100
Cause of deathMyocardial infarction
NationalityFrench
BirthplaceBrussels, Belgium
Occupationphilosopher, politician, anthropologist
Editor's Take:
Claude Lévi-Strauss argued that all human cultures share hidden patterns of thought. He looked for those patterns in myths, kinship rules and cooking. His approach, called structuralism, spread from anthropology into literature, philosophy and beyond. Tristes Tropiques mixed travel writing with reflection on the loss of traditional ways of life. It begins with the famous line that he hated travelling. He treated so-called primitive peoples as thinkers equal to anyone. He died in 2009, a month before his 101st birthday.
Key Milestones
1935: Begins fieldwork in Brazil
1949: Publishes The Elementary Structures of Kinship
1955: Publishes Tristes Tropiques
1973: Elected to the Académie française
Claude Lévi-Strauss ( klawd LAY-vee STROWSS; French:; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a Belgian-born French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology.
Claude Lévi-Strauss's birthday is November 28. He was born on November 28, 1908 in Brussels, Belgium.
How old was Claude Lévi-Strauss when he died?
Claude Lévi-Strauss died on October 30, 2009, aged 100.
Who shares a birthday with Claude Lévi-Strauss?
Famous people who share Claude Lévi-Strauss's November 28 birthday include Friedrich Engels, William Blake, Stefan Zweig, Alexander Blok and Hasan Nasrallah.
