Arnold van Gennep, in full Charles-Arnold Kurr van Gennep (23 April 1873 – 7 May 1957) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

–

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

and

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

Biography

He was born in

Ludwigsburg Ludwigsburg (; Swabian: ''Ludisburg'') is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg district with about 88,000 inhabitants. It is ...

, in the

Kingdom of Württemberg The Kingdom of Württemberg (german: Königreich Württemberg ) was a German state that existed from 1805 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which exist ...

(since 1871, part of the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

). Since his parents were never married, Van Gennep adopted his

mother's

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A personal ...

, "

van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

Gennep Gennep () is a municipality and a city in upper southeastern Netherlands. It lies in the very northern part of the province of Limburg, 18 km south of Nijmegen. Furthermore, it lies on the right bank of the Meuse river, and south of the forest o ...

". When he was six, he and his mother moved to

Lyons Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...

, France, where she married a French doctor who moved the family to

Savoy Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south. Savo ...

. Van Gennep is best known for his work regarding

rites of passage A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society. In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisation of ''rite ...

ceremonies and his significant works in modern French folklore. He is recognised as the founder of

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

studies in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. He went to

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. S ...

to study at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

. However, he was disappointed that the school did not offer the subjects he wanted and so he enrolled at the

École des langues 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. ...

to study

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and at the

École pratique des hautes études The École pratique des hautes études (), abbreviated EPHE, is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is highly selective, and counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions. It is a constituent college o ...

for philology, general linguistics, Egyptology, Ancient Arabic, primitive religions and Islamic culture. That scholarly independence would manifest itself for the remainder of his life. He never held an academic position in France. From 1912 to 1915, he held the Chair of Ethnography at the

University of Neuchâtel The University of Neuchâtel (UniNE) is a French-speaking university based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The university has four faculties (schools) and more than a dozen institutes, including arts and human sciences, natural sciences, law and eco ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

but was expelled for expressing doubts about the neutrality of Switzerland during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. There he reorganized the museum and organized the first ethnographic conference (1914). In 1922, he toured the United States. His best-known work is ''Les rites de passage'' (''The Rites of Passage'', 1909), which includes his vision of rites of passage rituals as being divided into three phases: ''préliminaire'' 'preliminary', ''liminaire'' '

liminality In anthropology, liminality () is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they w ...

' (a stage much studied by the anthropologist

Victor Turner Victor Witter Turner (28 May 1920 – 18 December 1983) was a British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals, and rites of passage. His work, along with that of Clifford Geertz and others, is often referred to as ...

), and ''postliminaire'' 'post-liminality'. His major work in French folklore was ''Le Manuel de folklore français contemporain'' (Handbook of Contemporary French Folklore, 1937–1958). He died in 1957 in

Bourg-la-Reine Bourg-la-Reine () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. History In 1792, during the French Revolution, Bourg-la-Reine (meaning "Town of the Queen") was renamed Bourg-l'Égalité (meani ...

, France.

Influences

* ''The Rites of Passage'' was highly influential in the structuring of

Joseph Campbell Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the ...

's 1949 text, ''

The Hero with a Thousand Faces ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces'' (first published in 1949) is a work of comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell, in which the author discusses his theory of the mythological structure of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world myths ...

'', as Campbell divides the journey of the hero into three parts, ''Departure'', ''Initiation'', and ''Return''. * ''The Rites of Passage'' influenced anthropologist

's research, particularly his 1969 text, ''The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure''.

Works

*
Le Tissage aux Cartons et son utilisation décorative dans l'Egypte Ancienne
', Neuchatel, Switzerland: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1916, co-author Gustave Jeqier. English translation

' Barbara Shapiro, transl. San Francisco, 2010. *
Traité comparatif des nationalités
', Paris: Payot, 1922 * ''Tabou et Totemisme a Madagascar Etude Descriptive et Theorique'', Paris: 1904 *
Essai d’une théorie des langues spécialesl
', Paris: 1908 *
Works at archive.org
' *
The Rites of Passage
', 1909.

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

, 1960
''web page''
* ''Les Jeux et les Sports populaires de France: Arnold Van Gennep (textes inédits 1925)'', L.S. Fournier (éd.), Paris, éditions du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, 2015.

References

Arnold van Gennep at unjobs.org
* Belmont, Nicole ''Arnold van Gennep: The Creator of French Ethnography'' Derek Coltman trans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979 * Daniel Fabre et Christine Laurière (dir.), ''Arnold Van Gennep: du folklore à l'ethnographie'', Paris, éditions du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, 2018. * Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt, ''The Enigma of Arnold Van Gennep (1873–1957): Master of French Folklore and Hermit of Bourg-la-Reine.'' Thesis – University of California Berkeley, 1978.

External links

* *
Arnold van Gennep
on data.bnf.fr {{DEFAULTSORT:Gennep, Arnold van 1873 births 1957 deaths People from Ludwigsburg French ethnographers French folklorists Anthropologists of religion People from the Kingdom of Württemberg People from Savoie University of Neuchâtel faculty French male writers French people of Dutch descent