Claude Levi-Strauss, who died at the age of 100 on Oct. 30, 2009, is being remembered as a pioneering social scientist, whose work was imparted as foundational in anthropology classrooms around the world.

Archaeologist M. Scott Thompson, an Arizona State University doctoral candidate in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was one of many inspired by Levi-Strauss’ work.

He is quoted in a Nov. 4 CNN article about the influential anthropologist.

In the piece, Thompson—whose research interests include complex societies, Mississippian archaeology and chiefdoms—provides his take on Levi-Strauss’ contributions to the field of anthropology and stresses the importance of his ideas in understanding the formation of cultures.

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