Claude Levi-Strauss (English: ; French: [klod levi stRos]; 28 November 1908, Brussels - 30 October 2009, Paris) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theory of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthropology at the College de France between 1959 and 1982 and was elected a member of the Academie francaise in 1973. He received numerous honors from universities and institutions throughout the world and has been called, alongside James George Frazer and Franz Boas, the "father of modern anthropology". Levi-Strauss argued that the "savage" mind had the same structures as the "civilized" mind and that human characteristics are the same everywhere.

In 2008, he became the first member of the Academie francaise to reach the age of 100 and one of the few living authors to have his works published in the Bibliotheque de la Pleiade. On the death of Maurice Druon on 14 April 2009, he became the Dean of the Academie, its longest-serving member.  He died on 30 October 2009, a few weeks before his 101st birthday. The death was announced four days later.  French President Nicolas Sarkozy described him as "one of the greatest ethnologists of all time". Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, said Levi-Strauss "broke with an ethnocentric vision of history and humanity ... At a time when we are trying to give meaning to globalisation, to build a fairer and more humane world, I would like Claude Levi-Strauss's universal echo to resonate more strongly". In a similar vein, a statement by Levi-Strauss was broadcast on National Public Radio in the remembrance produced by All Things Considered on November 3, 2009: "There is today a frightful disappearance of living species, be they plants or animals. And it's clear that the density of human beings has become so great, if I can say so, that they have begun to poison themselves. And the world in which I am finishing my existence is no longer a world that I like." The Daily Telegraph said in its obituary that Levi-Strauss was "one of the dominating postwar influences in French intellectual life and the leading exponent of Structuralism in the social sciences". Permanent secretary of the Academie francaise Helene Carrere d'Encausse said: "He was a thinker, a philosopher ... We will not find another like him".

Where did he die?