Tue, November 03, 2009
PARIS, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday paid homage to Claude Levi-Strauss, a famous anthropologist who is regarded as the "national treasure" and "father of modern anthropology,"
Died at 100 on Friday, Levi-Strauss was buried at a private service, local media reported.
In a statement released by Elysee Palace, Sarkozy paid tribute to the intellectual, regarding him as "a very great scholar, always open to the world, who created modern anthropology and raised the reputation of French human and social sciences to its highest level."
Levi-Strauss set up a leader status in anthropology circles due to his contribution to the concept of structuralism, which defines the common pattern of behavior and thought in human societies, and other researches concerning kinship and primitive tribes in Brazilian Amazon.
Born on Nov. 28, 1908, in Brussels, Levi-Strauss studied in Paris first on philosophy but grew great interest later in anthropology when he taught in Sao Paulo, Brazil. His research in the South American country about original tribes paved the way to his further achievement.
The jewish-origined intellectual authored several worldwide famous works, among which the memoir Tristes Tropiques (1955), the anthropological masterpieces The Savage Mind (1963) and Mythological are considered milestones of his life and career.
