Guiart, Jean (1925-2019)

Jean Guiart (1925-2019) is one of the leading figures in 20^th-century French oceanic ethnological research. A former aspiring Protestant missionary, trained in anthropology under the leadership of Maurice Leenhardt, he left for New Caledonia in 1947. For about ten years, he conducted extensive research in a large part of the archipelago and in the New Hebrides. Back in France, he had a brilliant academic career at the EPHE and then at the Sorbonne. From 1973 to 1988, he directed the laboratory of ethnology at the Musée de l’Homme. A long series of conflicts with his Oceanic peers has durably tarnished his image, obliterating the originality of his very first works.

Keywords: Ethnology | Colonialism | New Hebrides/Vanuatu | New Caledonia | Melanesian studies | Polynesian studies | Musée de l’Homme | Maurice Leenhardt