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of the Histories of Anthropology

Close to the surrealist avant-garde, Michel Leiris (1901-1989) discovered the world of ethnology thanks to his friend Georges Henri Rivière who introduced him to the Musée d’ethnographie du Trocadéro. Contributing to the journal Documents alongside Marcel Griaule, he was the secretary-archivist of the Dakar-Djibouti mission (1931-1933) and published L’Afrique fantôme (1934) upon his return. Faithful to the Musée de l’Homme and researcher at the CNRS, his ethnological works focus on circumcision, funeral rituals and masks and the phenomenon of possession, testifying to diversified ethnological interests nourished by his trip to the West Indies in 1948 where he discovered Haitian voodoo. Engaged after 1945 in struggles against racism and colonialism, he never ceased to pursue his autobiographical literary work in parallel.

Keywords: Colonial sciences | Literature | French Ethnology | Ethnographic expeditions and missions | Reflexive Ethnography | Antiracism | Ethiopia | Mali | West Indies | Haiti | Dogon | Voodoo | Possession rituals | Musée de l’Homme | Musée d’ethnographie du Trocadéro | Marcel Griaule | Georges Henri Rivière