Claude Meillassoux (December 26, 1925 — January 3, 2005) was a French neo-Marxian economic anthropologist and Africanist.
Meillassoux, a student of Georges Balandier, did fieldwork among the Guro (Gouro) of the Côte d'Ivoire: his thesis was published in 1964. In the 1970s he criticised Marshall Sahlins's use of the notion of "domestic mode of production". Meillassoux was throughout his life a politically committed critic of social injustice.
He is survived by his partner of many years, Corinne Belliard, a son (philosopher Quentin Meillassoux), and a granddaughter.