French intellectual Claude Levi-Strauss, the founder of structural anthropology, has died at the age of 100.
He was known to a wider public thanks to his 1955 memoir and masterpiece Tristes Tropiques.
A brilliant student who excelled at geology, law and philosophy, Claude Levi-Strauss was posted to Brazil as a professor in 1935. It was there that he found his vocation for anthropology.
He conducted several expeditions into remote areas of the Amazon rainforest and the Mato Grosso to study the customs of local tribes, starting to develop theories and methods that would later have a profound impact on his field.
He returned to France and was drafted into the French army at the start of World War II. After the defeat of France by the Nazis, he moved to the United States until 1944.
Over the following years, he held a number of prestigious scientific posts in Paris and New York and started to produce his influential scientific volumes.
Tribal basis
In particular, he used tribal customs and myths to show that human behaviour is based on logical systems which may vary from society to society, but possess a common sub-structure.
These findings challenged the notion that Western European culture was somehow unique or superior.
He argued that linguistics, communications and mathematical logic could be used to reveal fundamental social systems.
He achieved France's highest recognition for a scientist in 1973, when he was elected to the Academie Francaise. He also received numerous honours from foreign universities and governments, including Brazil.
His works include The Savage Mind and The Raw and the Cooked.
Claude Levi-Strauss died on Saturday, his publishing house Plon said.
