ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Claude Lévi-Strauss

Claude Lévi-Strauss was a very smart man who studied people and cultures. He looked at how different groups of people behaved, what they believed, and how they lived. He was like a detective trying to figure out how things work.

He had a special way of looking at cultures called "structuralism." This means that he believed all cultures had a structure, kind of like a building made of blocks. He thought that all cultures had different ways of doing things, but they were all building blocks that fit together in a certain way.

For example, let's say you have a group of friends. Each friend has a certain role. One friend might be the leader, another might be the jokester, and another might be the good listener. These roles are like building blocks, they fit together to make the group work.

Lévi-Strauss also looked at things like myths and stories. He believed that the stories people told said a lot about their culture. He looked at things like how the stories were told, what they were about, and what they meant.

So, to sum it up, Lévi-Strauss was a smart man who studied people and cultures. He looked at how they behaved, what they believed, and how they lived. He believed that all cultures had a structure and that stories and myths were important clues about their culture.