Maurice Godelier (born February 28, 1934) is a French anthropologist who works as a Director of Studies at the

School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (, EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The school awards Master and PhD degrees alone and conjo ...

. He is one of the most influential French anthropologists and is best known as one of the earliest advocates of

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

's incorporation into anthropology. He is also known for his field work among the Baruya in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

from the 1960s to the 1980s.Niko Besnier and Alan Howard. (April 1997) . Newsletter of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania.

Early life and education

Godelier was born to a poor family in provincial France in the commune

Cambrai Cambrai (, ; ; ), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord department and in the Hauts-de-France region of France on the Scheldt river, which is known locally as the Escaut river. A sub-pref ...

. In 1955, Godelier received an associate degree in philosophy, a degree in psychology, and a degree in modern literature. During his early education, he was especially interested in the works of Husserl. He attended the

École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

from 1955 to 1959 and received an

agrégation In France, the () is the most competitive and prestigious examination for civil service in the French public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all stu ...

in philosophy. Godelier developed a specific interest in Marxist theory and politics; influenced by

Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss ( ; ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a Belgian-born French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair o ...

, he chose to pursue the field of anthropology. He participated with other colleagues committed to the left ( Elena Cassin,

Maxime Rodinson Maxime Rodinson (; 26 January 191523 May 2004) was a French historian and sociologist. Ideologically a Marxist, Rodinson was a prominent authority in oriental studies. He was the son of a Russian- Polish clothing trader and his wife, who both ...

, André-Georges Haudricourt, Charles Malamoud, Jean-Paul Brisson, Jean Yoyotte, Jean Bottero) in a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

think tank organised by

Jean-Pierre Vernant Jean-Pierre Vernant (; January 4, 1914 – January 9, 2007) was a French resistant, historian and anthropologist, specialist in ancient Greece. Influenced by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Vernant developed a structuralist approach to Greek myth, traged ...

. This group took on an institutional form with the creation, in 1964, of the ''Centre des recherches comparées sur les sociétés anciennes'', which later became the ''Centre Louis Gernet'', focusing more on the study of

ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

. In 1981, he received an honorary degree from the

Université catholique de Louvain UCLouvain (or Université catholique de Louvain , French for Catholic University of Louvain, officially in English the University of Louvain) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university and one of the oldest in Europe (originally establishe ...

Career

In 1963, Godelier initiated the first program on

economic anthropology Economic anthropology is a field that attempts to explain human economic behavior in its widest historic, geographic and cultural scope. It is an amalgamation of economics and anthropology. It is practiced by anthropologists and has a complex re ...

in France at

College de France A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary education, tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding academic degree, degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further educatio ...

. In this program he focused on refining the Marxist ideas of

base and superstructure In Marxist theory, societies A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority a ...

and

modes of production Mode ( meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to: Arts and entertainment * MODE (magazine), MO''D''E (magazine), a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine * ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which i ...

. From 1966 to 1969, Godelier conducted his first major anthropological field study on the Baruya in Papua New Guinea. His research provided significant contributions to the limited understanding of New Guinea cultures. In 1982, he used his research to write an

ethnography Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

on the Baruya. The book, entitled '' The Making of Great Men'', discusses sex- and gender-based inequality and provided insight into the systems of power in

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanu ...

. His analysis of the systems of power was further developed in '' Big Men and Great Men'', published in 1991, which he co-edited with

Marilyn Strathern Dame Ann Marilyn Strathern, Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, DBE, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (née Evans; born 6 March 1941) is a Great Britain, British anthropology, anthropologist, who has worked lar ...

. In the late 1990s, Godelier addressed the future of peripheral societies under the effects of world capitalism and a new analysis of kinship theory focusing on gender inequality and sexuality. In 1995, he founded the Center for Research and Documentation on Oceania, which he directed until 1999. From 2000 to 2003, Godelier served on various organizations related to research in social sciences in Europe and his anthropological work in

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

. He was the president of the '' Société des océanistes'' from 2013 to 2015.

Publications

* Rationalité et irrationalité en économie – 1969 (2 volumes) (Rationality and Irrationality in Economics, London : NLB, 1972). * 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 Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 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;

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...

, Polity Press, 1998, ). * Meurtre du père, sacrifice de la sexualité,1996. * La production du corps. Approches anthropologiques et historiques and Le corps humain. Conçu. Supplicié, possédé, cannibalisé. Texts collected and edited by Maurice Godelier and Michel Panoff. Amsterdam, Archives contemporaines (1998). * Godelier, Maurice (2004). ''Métamorphoses de la parenté''. Paris: Fayard.. OCLC 61137773. * ''Lévi-Strauss'', Paris: Le Seuil, 2013, (592 p.) / Tr. by Nora Scott, (2018) ''Claude Lévi-Strauss, A Critical Study of His Thought'', Verso books, (560 p.).

References

External links

Interview with GodelierJack Goody's book review of Godelier's ''Métamorphoses de la parenté''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Godelier, Maurice 1934 births French anthropologists Economic anthropologists Living people ENS Fontenay-Saint-Cloud-Lyon alumni