Claude Lévi-Strauss was born on November 28, 1908 in Brussels, though soon after his parents returned to Paris where he has since lived for most of his life. During his teenage years Lévi-Strauss was introduced to the writings of Marx and Proudhon by a friend of the family through whom he became associated with the Belgian Workers Party. His first published work—on Gracchus Babeuf—was printed by the Party press, and he also became active within the French socialist party (SFIO). He was later secretary of the socialist study group of students for the five Ecoles Normales Supérieures and general secretary of the Federation of Socialist Students (Fédération des Etudiants Socialistes). He obtained a degree in philosophy from the Sorbonne and one in law from the Faculté de Droit, though he claims to have gone through the whole time “like a zombie, with the feeling I was outside it all” (Lévi-Strauss and Eribon 1991, 10).

After aggrégation in 1931, he was appointed to teach in the Iycée at Mont-de-Marsan. He stayed for a year before taking a second appointment at Laon. It was at this time that he married his first wife, Dina Dreyfus.