Marcel Griaule (16 May 1898 – 23 February 1956) was a French author and anthropologist known for his studies of the Dogon people of

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali ...

, and for pioneering ethnographic field studies in France. He worked together with

Germaine Dieterlen Germaine Dieterlen (15 May 1903 in Paris – 13 November 1999 in Paris) was a French anthropologist. She was a student of Marcel Mauss, worked with noted French anthropologists Marcel Griaule (1898-1956) and Jean Rou ...

and Jean Rouch on African subjects. His publications number over 170 books and articles for scholarly journals.

Biography

Born in

Aisy-sur-Armançon Aisy-sur-Armançon (, literally ''Aisy on Armançon'') is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France. Population See also *Communes of the Yonne department The following is a list of the 423 commu ...

, Griaule received a good education and was preparing to become an engineer and enrolled at the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand when in 1917 at the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

he volunteered to become a pilot in the French Air Force. In 1920 he returned to university, where he attended the lectures of

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 ...

and Marcel Cohen. Intrigued by anthropology, he gave up plans for a technical career. In 1927 he received a degree from the École Nationale de Langues Orientales, where he concentrated on Amharic and Ge'ez. Between 1928 and 1933 Griaule participated in two large-scale ethnographic expeditions—one to

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

and the ambitious

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...

Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...

expedition which crossed Africa. On the latter expedition he first visited the Dogon, the ethnic group with whom he would be forever associated. In 1933 he received a diploma from the École Pratique des Hautes Études in religion. Throughout the 1930s Griaule and his student

undertook several group expeditions to the Dogon area in

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...

. During these trips Griaule pioneered the use of aerial photography, surveying, and teamwork to study other cultures. In 1938 he produced his dissertation and received a doctorate based on his Dogon research. With the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Griaule was drafted again in the French Air Force and after the war he served as the inaugural professor of the first chair of anthropology at the

University of Paris - Sorbonne Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; french: Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV) was a public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the Universi ...

. He died in 1956 in Paris. Griaule is remembered for his work with the blind hunter

Ogotemmeli Ogotemmeli (also: Ogotemmêli or Ogotommeli, died 1962) was the Dogon elder and hogon who narrated the cosmogony, cosmology and symbols of the Dogon people to French anthropologist Marcel Griaule during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, that went o ...

and his elaborate exegeses of Dogon myth ( fr )—(including the Nommo) and ritual. His study of Dogon masks remains one of the fundamental works on the topic. A number of anthropologists are highly critical of his work and argue that his claims about

Sirius Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word , or , meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated α Canis Majoris, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbreviated Alpha CM ...

and his elaborate accounts of cosmic eggs and mystic vibrations do not accurately reflect Dogon belief. Griaule is the father of anthropologist Geneviève Calame-Griaule (See :fr: Geneviève Calame-Griaule).

Selected works

*''Burners of men: Modern Ethiopia.'' Lippincott, 1935. (The story of an expedition into the interior of Abyssinia in the early 1930s; a time when Abyssinia was trying to fight off Mussolini. The book was awarded the 1934 Prix Gringoire.) *''Abyssinian Journey.'' 1935. (Travel account of an ethnographic and linguistic study on behalf of the French Government in the 1930s.) *''Masques dogons'', Institut d'Ethnologie, 1938 *''Jeux dogons'', Institut d'Ethnologie, 1938 *''Les Saô légendaires'', Gallimard, 1943. *''Folk art of black Africa,'' 1950. *''Signes Graphiques Soudanais'', Hermann et Cie Editeurs, 1951. *''Conversations with

: An Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas.'' 1965. (many reprints) , originally published in 1948 as ''Dieu d'Eau''. *with Germaine Dieterlen: ''The Pale Fox'', originally published as ''Le Renard Pâle'', Institut d'Ethnologie, 1965. *Methode de l'Etnographie, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1957. (There's Spanish translation: El Método de la Etnografía, Nova, Buenos Aires, 1969.)

References

Sources

* Isabelle Fiemeyer, ''Marcel Griaule, citoyen dogon'', Actes Sud 2004 * Laird Scranton, "Revisiting Griaule's Dogon Cosmology." ''Anthropology News'', Vol. 48, No 4 (April 2007)

External links

Tracking the Pale Fox
- documentary and notes by Luc de Heuch having Griaule as central figure.
On the Pale Fox, trail part 1 of 5 tracks of the Pale Fox in divination plots
– film series about the Dogon myth of the Earth creation {{DEFAULTSORT:Griaule, Marcel French anthropologists École pratique des hautes études alumni University of Paris faculty Writers on Dogon religion 1898 births 1956 deaths French military personnel of World War I French military personnel of World War II 20th-century anthropologists People from Yonne