Dina Lévi-Strauss

Who is Dina Lévi-Strauss?

Dina Lévi-Strauss, née Dreyfus was a French ethnologist and anthropologist, who conducted cultural research in South America, taught at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, and founded the first ethnological society in the country.

In 1932 she married Claude Lévi-Strauss, who developed his interest in ethnology while working with his wife. In 1935 she joined the French cultural mission to lecture at the newly founded University of São Paulo. She taught a course on practical ethnology that attracted a large audience from the town's educated, French-speaking society. She also founded Brazil's first ethnological society with Mario de Andrade.

In 1936-38 she undertook field research with her husband in Mato Grosso and Rondônia in the Amazon Rainforest, studying the cultures of the Guaycuru and Bororo Indian tribes.

Artifacts collected during the Mato Grosso expedition first were exhibited in Paris at the Musée de l'Homme during 1937. The title of the exhibition, Indiens du Mato-Grosso, recognized the contributions of both scientists.