NON! NON! ET NON!
THIS Levi-Strauss:
Claude Levi-Strauss, the French anthropologist, philosopher and social theorist, has passed away at the age of 100, according to the BBC. Though Levi-Strauss began his career as an anthropologist and came to prominence for his books about Amazon native tribes, his significance as an intellectual and writer came more from his ideas on structuralism as it applied to cultural studies (meaning the study of culture through the lens of anthropology, not so much the more aesthetic realm that we tend to think of cultural study today). He was often the counterweight to the ideas of people like Jean-Paul Sartre or Jacques Derrida. Though I hate to simply lean on Wikipedia, the entry for Levi-Strauss is particularly good, especially if you have never encountered him or his ideas in an academic setting. Similarly, this essay looking at Levi-Strauss as he celebrated his 100th birthday late last year lends some necessary critique and context that the Wikipedia article does not. The New York Times obituary is very accessible to the general reader.
During my college and grad-student years, I encountered Levi-Strauss and his work a number of times. I still have a very old copy of “The Raw and The Cooked” which I had to read first as a college freshman taking a basic Anthro course and then again later when I was in my doctoral program, which relied heavily on cultural studies. Amazing how the same book can be seen two very different ways like that. “The Savage Mind” and the concept of “bricolage” also became significant in the course of my graduate work.
Most Americans probably have never heard of Claude Levi-Strauss, nor would care to know about his death; as the “paper of record”, the NYT was obliged to carry an obituary, of course, but it’s not exactly big news on CNN or PerezHilton.com, which, if you think about it for a moment, is actually rather ironic.
Anthropology major here. I’d be sadder, but I hadn’t realized he was still alive.
Moi aussi. And, at almost 101, it’s not like he died a tragically early death.
so what about abe vigoda, though?
No, I categorically reject the apostasy of Vigoda-ism!