Claude Levi-Strauss 1908 - 2009

Claude Levi-Strauss, the famous French social anthropologist known for his approach of Structuralism, died over the weekend at the age of 100. I first heard lectures on Levi-Strauss in English courses during college in the mid 1980s, and subsequently realized his impact on biblical studies when I was a seminary and graduate student. I continue to find his work helpful for a critical understanding of the nature of mythology, and I still lecture on him briefly in my Old Testament Interpretation course when we cover contemporary literary approaches to the Bible. Levi-Strauss influenced generations of intellectuals with his ideas on culture.

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