Maurice Leenhardt

Maurice Leenhardt (* 1878 in Montauban, † 1954 in Paris) was a French pastor and the Kanak of New Caledonia specialized ethnologist.

Mission to New Caledonia

At the beginning of the twentieth century Protestant authorities engaged in competition with the (Catholic) Marist with the evangelization of the wogs. Maurice Leenhardt was appointed in 1902 in New Caledonia to the pastor, where he founded the " Dö Neva " mission in the valley of Houailou. Beyond the role of the pastor, he devoted himself to the task of understanding the mentality of these located on the way to extinction people.

When he arrived in New Caledonia, was Maurice Leenhardt by the Mayor of Noumea greeted with the following words: "Que venez -vous faire ici dix ans il n'y aura Dans plus de Kanaks? " ("What are you doing here in ten years? there is no more wogs "). He dedicated himself to the fight against this insidious genocide; he fought alcoholism, who had slowly devastating impact on the people of the wogs. He translated the New Testament with the help of his first students in the language of Houailou.

He returned in 1927 to France, where he founded the Société des Océanistes and the Musée de l' Homme, and where he took over the chair of Lucien Lévy -Bruhl at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. After a second stay of nearly ten years in New Caledonia, he began in 1944 at the Institut national des langues et civilizations orientales oceanic languages ​​to teach.

Contributions to Anthropology

Maurice Leenhardts contributions to anthropology are significant, although he did not possess any theoretical framework.

Before Bronisław Malinowski, he practiced propagated by Marcel Mauss from his office in Paris ethnology. Twenty-five years he practiced participatory observation ( observation PARTICIPANTE ) and active research, the high value was only rediscovered in the 1960s.

Maurice Leenhardt was not a dogmatist and endeavor in any of his posts, " to make school".

Nevertheless, he was one of the first who considered the social phenomena in their entirety and the art, myths, customs, and language of the Kanak explored.

Works

Major works in bold