Sometimes I learn about fascinating people only when they die

For example, Claud Levi Strauss. I do not think he is connected with the jeans. He was a philosopher and anthropologist.

His interpretations of North and South American myths were pivotal in changing Western thinking about so-called primitive societies. The accepted view held that primitive societies were intellectually unimaginative and temperamentally irrational, basing their approaches to life and religion on the satisfaction of urgent needs for food, clothing and shelter. Mr. Lévi-Strauss rescued his subjects from this limited perspective. Beginning with the Caduveo and Bororo tribes in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil, he found among them a dogged quest not just to satisfy material needs but also to understand origins, a sophisticated logic that governed even the most bizarre myths, and an implicit sense of order and design, even among tribes who practiced ruthless warfare.

The full story is here.