Maurice Leenhardt (9 March 1878 – 26 January 1954), was a French pastor and

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropolog ...

specialising in the

Kanak people The Kanak (French language, French spelling until 1984: Canaque) are the Indigenous peoples of Oceania, indigenous Melanesians, Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southwest Pacific Ocean, Pacifi ...

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

Life

Leenhardt was born in

Montauban Montauban (, ; oc, Montalban ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, region of Occitania, Southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, ...

. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Protestant authorities concerned themselves with the evangelisation of the Kanaks, in competition with the

Marist Brothers The Marist Brothers of the Schools, commonly known as simply the Marist Brothers, is an international community of Catholic religious institute of brothers. In 1817, St. Marcellin Champagnat, a Marist priest from France, founded the Marist Brothe ...

. Maurice Leenhardt was named pastor in 1902 in New Caledonia where he founded the "Dö nèvâ" mission in the valley of Houailou. Going beyond his role of pastor, he applied himself to understanding the mentality of these people. When he arrived in New Caledonia, Maurice Leenhardt was welcomed by these words from the mayor of Nouméa: ''What have you come to do here? In ten years there will be no more Kanaks.'' He applied himself to the fight against this slow genocide; he combatted the alcoholism that slowly ravaged the Kanak people. He translated the ''New Testament'' into the Houaïlou language with the help of his first students. He returned to France in 1927 where he founded the Société des Océanistes and the

Musée de l'Homme The Musée de l'Homme (French, "Museum of Mankind" or "Museum of Humanity") is an anthropology museum in Paris, France. It was established in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne ...

, and took the chair of Lucien Lévy-Bruhl at the

École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate '' grande école'' and '' grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. Th ...

. Following a second stay of nearly ten years in New Caledonia, he began teaching Oceanic languages at the

Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...

in 1944. He died in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. Leenhardt's daughter Stella married the historian of religions and theologian

Henry Corbin Henry Corbin (14 April 1903 – 7 October 1978)Shayegan, DaryushHenry Corbin in Encyclopaedia Iranica. was a French philosopher, theologian, and Iranologist, professor of Islamic studies at the École pratique des hautes études. He was in ...

(1933).

Contributions to Ethnology

Maurice Leenhardt's contributions to ethnology are considerable, though he did not frame them theoretically. Before Bronislaw Malinowski, he practiced the ethnology advocated by

Marcel Mauss Marcel Mauss (; 10 May 1872 – 10 February 1950) was a French sociologist and anthropologist known as the "father of French ethnology". The nephew of Émile Durkheim, Mauss, in his academic work, crossed the boundaries between sociology and ...

from his office in Paris. For twenty-five years he practiced

participant observation Participant observation is one type of data collection method by practitioner-scholars typically used in qualitative research and ethnography. This type of methodology is employed in many disciplines, particularly anthropology (incl. cultural a ...

and active research, the virtues of which were not rediscovered until the 1960s. Maurice Leenhardt was not a dogmatist and through all these contributions, he never sought followers. He was nevertheless one of the first to consider social phenomena in their totality and to study the art, myths, and customs of the Kanak people as well as their language.

Works

*''Le Mouvement éthiopien au sud de l'Afrique'' (1902) *''La Grande Terre'' (1909, expanded edition 1922) *''Traduction du Nouveau Testament en langue houaïlou'' (1922) *''Notes d'ethnologie néo-calédonienne'' (1930) *''Documents néo-calédoniens''. (1932) *''Vocabulaire et grammaire de la langue houaïlou'' (1935) *''Gens de la Grande Terre'' (1937) *''Alfred Boegner'' (1938) *''Langues et dialectes de l'Austro-Mélanésie'' (1946) *''L'art océanien''. (1947) *''Do Kamo. La personne et le mythe dans le monde mélanésien'' (1947) *'' Notes de sociologie religieuse sur la région de Canala (Nouvelle-Calédonie)'' (1958

* Several papers in the '' Journal de la Société des Océanistes''.

References

* James Clifford: ''Maurice Leenhardt. Personne et mythe en Nouvelle Calédonie''. (Éditions Jean-Michel Place, 1987),engl.: ''Person and Myth – Maurice Leenhardt in the Melanesian World'', Duke University Press, 1992 *Jean Guiart: ''Maurice Leenhardt, missionnaire et sociologue''., Monde Non Chrétien, 1955, 13 p. L'article est téléchargeable sur le serveur de l'IRD (ex. ORSTO

*Jean Guiart: ''Destin d'une église et d'un peuple : Nouvelle-Calédonie 1900–1959 : étude monographique d'une œuvre missionnaire protestante''. (Paris FR), 1959, 88 p)

* Historique de la section langues océaniennes de l'INALCO, avec une longue notice biographique sur Maurice Leenhardt par J. de Lafontinelle. Article extrait de l'ouvrage : "Langues'O 1795–1995 : deux siècles d'histoire de l'Ecole des Langues Orientales", textes réunis par Pierre Labrousse. Editions Hervas. Paris 1995. https://web.archive.org/web/20070928121507/http://www.langues-oceaniennes.org/texte/historique.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Leenhardt, Maurice 1878 births 1954 deaths People from Montauban French ethnologists French Protestants