Maurice Godelier
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Born in Cambrai, France in 1934, Maurice Godelier is one of the most influential names in French anthropology. Directeur d'études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Best known as one of the earliest advocates of Marxism's incorporation into anthropology, he is also known for his field work among the Baruya in Papua New Guinea that spanned three decades from the 1960s to the 1980s.
http://www.virginia.edu/anthropology/events/godelier-bio.html
Maurice Godelier, Anthropologist, directeur d'études (de classe exceptionnelle) Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) Page-Barbour Lecturer for 2002 (http://faculty.virginia.edu/pbrlect/#Schedulev)
An internationally renowned anthropologist, Maurice Godelier is a specialist of the societies of Oceania. Between 1967 and 1988 his fieldwork focused on the Baruya, a New Guinea Highlands tribe discovered in 1951. The Baruya had neither classes nor a state structure, but were characterized by a high degree of gender inequality and numerous institutions serving male domination. He observed and analyzed the transformations in this society based on hunting and horticulture, a society that very quickly entered the market economy, was integrated into a state imposed by the West and exposed to the missionary zeal of Christian churches. In addition to his research in the Oceania, on the basis of which he has published numerous works and made documentary films, Godelier has also explored a number of essential domains: the role of the idéel (mental constructs) in social relations, the distinction between the imaginary and the symbolic, and more recently the distinction between things one gives, things one sells and things that can be neither given nor sold. In addition, he has also devoted an important part of his life to scientific policy making. From 1982 to 1986, he held the position of scientific director at the CNRS, as chairman of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. In 1995, he created the Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l'Océanie (CREDO), housed at the Université de Provence, which he directed until 1999. From 1997 to 2000, he was Scientific Director and participated in the creation of the new National Museum in Paris, Musée du Quai Branly, devoted to Arts and Civilisations in Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. In December 2000, the Prime Minister asked him to reflect once again on the state of the Sciences of Man and Society in France and to formulate proposals in view of their development in the framework of the construction of the European Research Space. The report (376 pages) was completed in April 2002 and delivered to the Prime Minister. He is currently member of the National Council of Science, and vice president of the National Coordination Board for Social Sciences and Humanities. He has been awarded the French Academy Prize (1982) and the International Alexander von Humbolt Prize for Social Sciences (1990). The French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) awarded him the CNRS Gold Medal for 2001.
Maurice Godelier was born on 28 February 1934 in Cambrai, in northern France. He ranked highest in the entry examination to the Ecole normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud, obtained the agrégation in philosophy, and earned degrees in psychology and modern literature. Originally trained in philosophy, Godelier rapidly turned his attention to economics. He entered the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes as chef de travaux under Fernand Braudel, and later was made lecturer under Claude Lévi-Strauss, then Professor of Anthropology at the Collège de France. His 1966 book, translated to Rationality and Irrationality in Economics, made him one of the French founders of economic anthropology. In 1975 he was appointed directeur d'études at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. He is an officer in the French Legion of Honor.
In addition to over 200 articles in various French and foreign journals, the results of his work have been published in a series of books most of which have been translated into many languages. Chief among these publications are : - La production des Grands Hommes. Pouvoir et domination masculine chez les Baruya de Nouvelle Guinée, Ed. Fayard (1982). (The Making of Great Men. Male domination and Power among the New Guinea Baruya, Cambridge University Press, 1986). Prize of the French Academy. - L'idéel et le matériel, Ed. Fayard (1984). (The Mental and the Material. Thought, economy and society, Verso,1986). - L'énigme du don, Ed. Fayard (1996). (The Enigma of the Gift, Chicago, Cambridge; Chicago University Press, Polity Press, 1998). - La Production du corps. Approches anthropologiques et historiques and Le Corps humain, supplicié, possédé, cannibalisé. Texts collected and edited by Maurice Godelier and Michel Panoff. Amsterdam, Archives contemporaines (1998).
Godelier has also made a number of films with Australian film-maker Ian Dunlop, and with Marek Jablonko and Steve Olson, two American film-makers. His films include: Planète Baruya, directed by Ian Dunlop (Production: CNRS Audiovisuel, FR3, Australian Film Unit, 1976).
He also co-authored a C.D. Rom with Jacques Kerchache: Chefs d'œuvre et civilisations - Afrique, Asie, Océanie, Amériques, which received the "Best of" for cultural CD-Roms in 2000, and the Eurêka d'Or.
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