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Outside France, French anthropology is conventionally seen as being dominated by grand theory produced by writers who have done little or no fieldwork themselves, and who may not even count as anthropologists in terms of the institutional structures of French academia. This applies to figures from Durkheim to Derrida, Mauss to Foucault, though there are partial exceptions, such as Lévi-Strauss and Bourdieu. It has led to a contrast being made, especially perhaps in the Anglo-Saxon world, between French theory relying on rational inference, and British empiricism based on induction and generally skeptical of theory. While there are contrasts between the two traditions, this is essentially a false view. It is this aspect of French anthropology that this collection addresses, in the belief that the neglect of many of these figures outside France is seriously distorting our view of the French tradition of anthropology overall. At the same time, the collection will provide a positive view of the French tradition of ethnography, stressing its combination of technical competence and the sympathies of its practitioners for its various ethnographic subjects.
“This volume is fascinating and, in my view, particularly interesting in that it offers a considerable contribution to the history (even ethno-history) of anthropology.” · L’Homme
List of illustrations
List of authors discussed in this volume
Preface
Introduction: Ethnographic practice and theory in France
Robert Parkin and Anne de Sales
Chapter 1. ‘Keeping your eyes open’: Arnold van Gennep and the autonomy of the folkloristic
Giordano Charuty
Chapter 2. Canonical ethnography: Hanoteau and Letourneux on Kabyle communal law
Peter Parkes
Chapter 3. Postcards at the service of the Imaginary: Jean Rouch, shared anthropology and the ciné-trance
Paul Henley
Chapter 4. Eric de Dampierre and the art of fieldwork
Margaret Buckner
Chapter 5. What sort of anthropologist was Paul Rivet?
Laura Rival
Chapter 6. Alfred Métraux: empiricist and romanticist
Peter Rivière
Chapter 7. Roger Bastide or the 'darknesses of alterity'
Stefania Capone
Chapter 8. The art and craft of ethnography: Lucien Bernot, 1919–1993
Gérard Toffin
Chapter 9. André-Georges Haudricourt: a thorough materialist
Alban Bensa
Chapter 10. Louis Dumont: from museology to structuralism via India
Robert Parkin
Chapter 11. Will the real Maurice Leenhardt please stand up? Four anthropologists in search of an ancestor
Jeremy MacClancy
Notes on Contributors
Index