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of the Histories of Anthropology

Léopold Cadière (1869-1955), a French missionary and ethnographer, is the author of a monumental scientific work on Vietnamese culture during the colonial era, linking the scholarly and apostolic worlds. From the broad lines of his research, the facets of his personality and the characteristics of his ethnographic terrain, he emerges as a figure of a priest whose situation is in various ways problematic. Although he was not a “pure” scientist — for which he is still known and celebrated — his work has certainly established him as the greatest Vietnamologist of his time.

Keywords: Linguistics | Ethnology | Orientalism | Ethnography | Christian missions | Missionary | Missiology | Southeast Asia | Vietnam | Annam | Asian studies | Oriental studies | Religion | Folk religion | Oral tradition | École française d’Extrême-Orient