Laurent, Donatien (1935-2020)

Born in 1935, Donatien Laurent first made a name for himself in Paris as a member of the Bagad Bleimor, a Breton ensemble inspired by Scottish bagpipe bands. He enrolled in André Leroi-Gourhan’s Certificate of Ethnology at the Musée de l’Homme and was sent to Plozévet, in Brittany, as part of the CNRS survey of this Finisterian locality. Admitted to the CNRS in 1966, he joined the oral literature department of the Musée national des arts et traditions populaires, contributed to the museum’s journal with influential articles, and devoted his thesis to Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué, a nineteenth-century French specialist of “Celtic” Brittany. In 1969, Laurent joined the Centre de recherche bretonne et celtique at the University of Brest and became its director in 1987. Donatien Laurent is also known for his research on the great troménie (pilgrimage) of Locronan, in the Finistère, which highlights the phenomena of pre-Celtic syncretism. He initiated numerous university research projects which have contributed to the consolidation of the field of ethnology of Brittany.

Keywords: Anthropology at home | Ethnomusicology | 20^th century | Brittany | France | Oral literature | Oral tradition | Oral History | Musée national des arts et traditions populaires | Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué