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of the Histories of Anthropology

French sociologist and ethnologist, early defender of a policy of cultural pluralism in a colonial situation, Charles Le Cœur (1903-1944) discovered Morocco in 1928. With his wife Marguerite, both teachers, he taught in Rabat and , as a student of Marcel Mauss, he continued his field research in Africa during two missions to Tibesti (Chad) (1932-1934, 1942-1943). In 1931, Mauss helped him to obtain a Rockefeller scholarship to spend a year with Bronislaw Malinowski in London. In 1939, Le Cœur published a remarkable thesis, Le rite et l’outil. Essai sur le rationalisme social et la pluralité des civilisations, reprinted by Georges Balandier in 1969. He died in 1943 while participating in the Italian military campaign.

Keywords: Sociology | Colonial sciences | French Ethnology | French colonialism | 20th century | Morocco | Chad | Arab and Islamic Studies | Bronislaw Malinowski | Marcel Mauss