Claude Lévi-Strauss Dies at 100 | Hacker News Reader

Claude Lévi-Strauss Dies at 100

nytimes.com

57 pointsrobg13 comments

He was about the same age as Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Simone Weil. Not only did he outlive his own generation, he outlived the generation that overthrew his, in intellectual movement terms. That's amazing.

Also, that photograph of Sarkozy visiting Lévi-Strauss is quintessentially French.

I was kind of surprised that he was still alive. I don't think his stuffs are completed threw out. Even when you are working on post modernism, post structuralism, his stuffs still are classics to be read as reference frame.

I remember 20 years ago when I read "The Raw and the Cooked". It was still a pretty decent work to be read.

Sarkozy's visit to Lévi-Strauss is similar to Wen Jiabao's visit to Qian Xuesen. But you see, French is more philosophy oriented and Chinese is engineering oriented....

Levi Strauss is not only probably one of the two most famous anthropologists of all time (Magaret Meade being the other), but his work is cited by many of the foundational thinkers of cognitive science.

His book "Tristes Tropiques" was also so well written that it would have been awarded the Prix Goncourt except that it was non-fiction.

Probably one of the ten most important thinkers of the 20th century, though not nearly so important today.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/nov/03/claude-levi-st...

Everybody is running the photo of him in the Amazon doing field research, even though his field research was not especially strong. A few quotes from the article:

Why not admit it? I was fairly quick to discover that I was more a man for the study than for the field.

I hate traveling and explorers.

Quite admirable! After discovering he had no taste for what was seen as the defining activity in his discipline, he didn't spend his life pretending or trying to be a brilliant field researcher. Nor did he resign himself to mediocrity. He found a way to bring his talents to bear in a field where everybody assumed that different talents were required.

One of the great things about him is that is work was very readable, even enjoyable even if parts of it are dated.

I found that a lot of old classic books in physics, mathematics and science are pretty readable. Such as those reprint titles from Dover Publications in U.S. Even Richard Feynman's lectures are pretty easy too read.

And books from early 20th century on psychoanalysis are readable, too.

It maybe that I am more experienced than I was so I can read those books faster with better comprehension. Or maybe I am old and fuzzy and thought I am getting their idea right with presumptuous inflated ego. Or maybe the pressure from getting grades is off the back, therefore I start to enjoy the pleasure of reading.

This guy did us a disservice in many ways. He is one of the instigators of the politically correct Our Evil Religion school of thought that our culture is no better then anyone else's (thus chipping away at Western Civilization, the hidden agenda)

Whereas the truth is everyone in those 'equal' civilizations is pissing through concrete trying to get the the West. The know damn well the equality thing is not so.

On the whole, an intellectual idiot.

Skimmed the article, but no mention of jeans....

For all those who have the same confusion, the person refered to in this article and the Levi Strauss (jeans guy) are different.

Claude Live-Strauss referenced in this article is an anthropologist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_L%C3%A9vi-Strauss

The Levi Strauss who ran a clothing company is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Strauss

Yeah, when I first saw this story somewhere, I thought, "Huh. Maybe you NEED tough pants to do anthropology."

Can we please add linking to registration-required content as something to avoid in the HN guidelines? This kind of thing seems to be increasing...

http://www.bugmenot.com/view/nytimes.com

Or, just register. It takes like 30 seconds, the cookie never expires, and you don't even have to use a valid email.

Installing a plugin or having to register is still a waste of time - especially when the article could be sourced from a number of similarly reputable sources.

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