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Follows the life of French anthropologist Françoise Héritier, who had a lasting impact on a generation of French anthropologists that continues to this day.
A great intellectual figure, Françoise Héritier succeeded Claude Lévi-Strauss as the Chair of Anthropology at the Collège de France in 1982. She was an Africanist, author of magnificent works on the Samo population, the scientific progenitor of kinship studies, the creator of a theoretical base to feminist thought and an activist for many causes.
“I read this intellectual biography of Françoise Héritier with great pleasure. Though highly regarded in France, she is not yet well known in English-language academic circles, but she certainly should be. This book will be a revelation to many anthropologists and feminist scholars.”—Adam Kuper, London School of Economics
From the Forword by Michelle Perrot:
I came to know her at the National Council for HIV, that she chaired from 1989 to 1994…. Her theoretical concerns were also crucial to the understanding of pandemics, but we did not then realise that HIV/AIDS was also a precursor and a warning of pandemics to come. She grasped the importance of conceptions of bodily ‘humours’—blood, semen, milk—that seemed to play a role in the horrific spread of an epidemic of which we knew nothing, except that it resulted in an appalling mortality rate, particularly among young men…. she was a remarkable chair, concerned to share her insights into the illness and to anchor—necessary—interventions within a framework that would be respectful of human rights.
“This scholarly biography should be read not only because it is the first one devoted to Héritier but above all because it highlights very well the coherence of an approach that at first glance is very fragmented.” • Cahiers d'Ėtudes africaines
“Gaillard has been able to manage the jugglery of bringing in social context and written ideas of a prominent French anthropologist through her life and works in a very dense and meaningful manner yet very briefly. This may actually be a work of art in itself for the brevity with which a large number of nuances and ideas are presented. For those who await the works of the French anthropologists to be presented in English, this may form a prelude, an incredibly valuable collection of the Who's Who of French Anthropology. A book worth keeping for any anthropologist and a significant contribution to the history of Anthropology in France.” • Journal of the Indian Anthropological Society
“Héritier was well-known in France and in Latin America but not much in the English-speaking world…His book here under review is a milestone in the history of anthropology. The imperishable place of Françoise Héritier in it is now secured.” • Cargo
“I read this intellectual biography of Françoise Héritier with great pleasure. Though highly regarded in France, she is not yet well known in English-language academic circles, but she certainly should be. This book will be a revelation to many anthropologists and feminist scholars.” • Adam Kuper, London School of Economics
Gérald Gaillard is an anthropologist and author born in Bouaké (Ivory Coast). His work includes The Routledge Dictionary of Anthropologists (Routledge, 2004); he has conducted research in Guinea-Conakry and Guinea-Bissau.
Foreword: The Gaze of Françoise Héritier
Michelle Perot
Preface
Chapter 1. The Young Woman and the Young People in Her Circle
Chapter 2. The Izard’s Africa and the Laboratory for Social Anthropology
Chapter 3. Kinship and Samo Ethnography
Chapter 4. Samo Ethnography and Working Out Kinship
Chapter 5. At the Collège de France
Chapter 6. Institutional Activities: Mitterrand II
Chapter 7. Complexities of Alliance, Incest of the Second Type and Spiritual and Milk Kinships
Chapter 8. Masculine/Feminine
Chapter 9. Socialist Activist
Chapter 10. Feminism and Fantasy
Selected Works by Françoise Héritier
References
Index