Au revoir Lévi-Strauss

Since yesterday, the anthropology blogosphere has been filled with reports of Lévi-Strauss’ death just shy of his 101st birthday and the many contributions  he made to anthropology and the social sciences in general.  I’ll just point you towards some of these tributes – singularly & collectively they provide a better look at the man and his work than anything I could hope to write.

Beginning with the blog which takes its name from Lévi-Strauss: Rex at Savage Minds explains what readers and students should appreciate most from Lévi-Strauss’ writings, and even includes a tender critique of his work.

Material World and Somatosphere note his passing and provide relevant links.

The AAA has a more clinical obituary, but includes links to news articles.

Max at Zero Anthropology pledges to continue grappling with Lévi-Strauss’ work.  He also posts a series of Lévi-Strauss interviews from 1972.

Erkan’s Field Diary laments the passing of the last anthropologist to occupy “the very center of global intellectual production” and signals the passing of anthropology’s “golden years”.

Lorenz points towards his series of articles about media coverage surrounding  Lévi-Strauss’ 100th birthday.

Culture Matters points to the NYTimes obituary as a testament to his stature in the world – and also singles out one of the comments: “He will be mythed!”

I think that sums it up

Updates

Over at the AAA blog Richard Price reflects on his time studying under Lévi-Strauss.

A follow-up post at Savage Minds directing readers to more obituaries plus interesting bits of Lévi-Strauss’ writings circulating around the web at the moment.

Greg at Neuroanthropology has an in-depth post about Lévi-Strauss’ influence in the study of the brain and culture, as well as points of departure between cognitive anthropology and neuroanthropology.