Happy 100th Birthday!

French President Nicolas Sarkozy talks with French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss Friday at the latter`s home on the occasion of Lévi-Strauss` 100th birthday. Urging an unbiased look at primitive civilization and incorporating diverse subjects from mythology to food to anthropology through his book “Tristes Tropiques (The Sad Tropics),” Lévi-Strauss is hailed as the most erudite scholar in French intellectual history. When unable to attend a celebratory event at Musée du Quai Branly due to his frail health, Sarkozy visited Lévi-Strauss with Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, president of the French Academy. Sarkozy said, “I came to pay tribute to you on behalf of the French people.” The French government will also offer a new award worth 100,000 euros (127,000 U.S. dollars) in Lévi-Strauss` name for an outstanding humanities scholar.