The French intellectual was regarded as having reshaped the field of anthropology and introduced structuralism — concepts about common patterns of behavior and thought, especially myths, in a wide range of human societies.

During his six-decade career, Levi-Strauss authored literary and anthropological classics including Tristes Tropiques (1955), The Savage Mind (1963) and The Raw and the Cooked (1964).

French President Nicolas Sarkozy joined government officials, politicians and ordinary citizens populating blogs with heartfelt tributes. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner praised his emphasis on a dialogue between cultures and said that France had lost a "visionary." Sarkozy honored the "indefatigable humanist."

Jean-Mathieu Pasqualini, chief of staff at the Academie Francaise — of which Levi-Strauss was a member — said an homage to Levi-Strauss was planned for Thursday.

Born on Nov. 28, 1908, in Brussels, Belgium, Levi-Strauss was the son of French parents of Jewish origin. He studied in Paris and went on to teach in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he conducted much of the research that led to his breakthrough books.

Levi-Strauss left France as a result of the anti-Jewish laws of the collaborationist Vichy regime and joined the Free French Forces during World War II.

Levi-Strauss also won worldwide acclaim and was awarded honorary doctorates at Harvard, Yale and Oxford, as well as at universities in Sweden, Mexico and Canada.

Levi-Strauss was a skilled handyman who believed in the virtues of manual labor and outdoor life. He was also an ardent music-lover who once said he would have liked to have been a composer had he not become an ethnologist.

He is survived by his sons, Roman and Laurent. Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. To see more, visit http://www.ap.org/.