New York, Nov 3 2009 4:10PM
The world has lost one of its greatest thinkers with the death of (http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=41819_DO=DO_TOPIC_SECTION=201.html) Claude Lévi-Strauss, the head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=29008_DO=DO_TOPIC_SECTION=201.html) said today, as he paid tribute to the renowned anthropologist.
Mr. Lévi-Strauss was “one of the giants of the 20th century,” said Koïchiro Matsuura, UNESCO Director-General, in a
statement issued from the agency’s headquarters in Paris following the announcement of the Frenchman’s death at the age
of 100.
“His thoughts changed the way people perceived each other, striking down such divisive concepts as race and opening the
way for a new vision based on recognition of the common bond of humanity.
“We mourn his passing, which is a loss to the whole world. But we celebrate his life, which was devoted to enlightenment
and understanding through knowledge, built largely out of his insatiable curiosity about his fellow human beings, which
took him to some of the most remote corners of the world and definitively changed modern anthropology.”
Mr. Lévi-Strauss had worked closely with UNESCO since its creation and his last public appearance was for an event in
Paris to mark the agency’s 60th anniversary in 2005.
“It was UNESCO’s great privilege to have worked with this great man over many decades,” Mr. Matsuura said.
Last year, the UNESCO Courier devoted a special edition to Mr. Lévi-Strauss in honour of his 100th birthday, drawing on audiovisual archives, articles and other publications written
by the anthropologist over five and a half decades.
ENDS