Alfred Metraux
Alfred Metraux, born November 5 1902 at Lausanne and found dead on 11 April 1963 Biography Child, he accompanied his parents in Argentina , in the region of Mendoza , where his father is a doctor, then returned to Lausanne , where he was born, to follow his studies. He then enrolled at the Ecole Nationale des Chartes in Paris , where he met Georges Bataille and Michel Leiris. It also follows the course of the School of Oriental Languages and the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in the section of religious sciences. But at the Sorbonne , where he teachers as Marcel Mauss and Paul Rivet , he maintains 1928 a PhD in literature on Tupinambas. His travels took him back to Argentina, where in 1928 he founded the Institute of Ethnology at the National University of Tucuman , which he directed until 1934. He visits the Chaco and highland Bolivia , dedicated to the study of several ethnic groups, such as Calchaques , the Guaran , the Chiriguano, the Toba and Wich , then the Uros -Chipaya. He collaborated with American anthropologists in the drafting of the Handbook of South American Indians, including contributing to the themes of religion and mythology. After several years marked by financial difficulties, he tried unsuccessfully to return to Europe. Dr. Paul Rivet entrusted the leadership of the French mission to the Easter Island in 1934 - one thousand nine hundred and thirty-five where he studied the language and local myths . In 1938 he was appointed researcher at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu , then went to teach the United States , at Berkeley and Yale. The outbreak of the Second World War , he turns to get his French colleagues threatened by the Nazis , as Claude Levi-Strauss , join them . In 1941 , he became an American citizen and participates in 1945 with the mission to the Allied bombings in Germany. The following year he became head of the Research Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the UN in New York . Researcher at the Smithsonian Institution and a permanent member of the Department of Social Sciences of UNESCO , he directed between 1948 and 1950 a survey to Haiti , which involves Michel Leiris , who provide the material for his book The Haitian Voodoo. From 1959 until his death he was director of studies at the VI section of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris and leads the seminar "Anthropology and Sociology of indigenous peoples in South America." He committed suicide on 11 April 1963 , his body was not recovered until April 20. He succumbed to the absorption of barbiturates and recorded in a notebook the stages of intoxication . Alfred Metraux has specialized in the study of peoples of South America and the Caribbean , particularly the peasantry in the study Haitian and Afro-American cults. His work on the Voodoo of Haiti and the shamanism are also still refer today in religious anthropology. His rich experience and erudition on the people indigenous to South America account for its strong contribution to the monumental book Handbook of South American Indians published by Stewart in 1949. Her visit to the UNESCO was an opportunity for him to promote many programs applied anthropology, particularly in Amazonia , in the Andes and in Haiti. In addition, he fought actively against racism by coordinating the interdisciplinary project led to the publication of the journal Science to Racism (published from 1951). Alfred Metraux remains today in the minds of anthropologists as an outstanding scientist, who had a more ethically exemplary work he has put at the service of human rights , and knowledge of rare fineness of cultures that he has been a specialist. The bibliography of Alfred Metraux has more than two hundred articles and books, here are the most important titles: Works
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