Arnold van Gennep
Encyclopedia
Arnold van Gennep was a noted French
ethnographer and folklorist.
, Kingdom of Württemberg
. At the age of six his parents divorced and he and his mother moved to France where she later married a French doctor who moved the family to Savoy
.
Van Gennep is best known for his work regarding rites of passage
ceremonies and his significant works in modern French folklore. He is recognised as the founder of folklore
studies in France
.
He went to Paris
to study at the Sorbonne
, but was disappointed that the school did not offer the subjects he wanted. So he enrolled at the Ecole des langues orientales to study Arabic and at the Ecole pratique des hautes etudes for philology, general linguistics, Egyptology, Ancient Arabic, primitive religions, and Islamic culture. This scholarly independence would manifest itself for the remainder of his life. He never held an academic position in France.
From 1912 to 1915 he held the Chair of Ethnography at the University of Neuchatel
in Switzerland
but was expelled for expressing doubts about the neutrality of Switzerland during World War I. There he reorganized the museum and organized the first ethnographical conference (1914). In 1922 he toured the United States.
His most famous work is Les rites de passage (The Rites of Passage) (1909) which includes his vision of rites of passage rituals as being divided into three phases: preliminary, liminaire (liminality
) (a stage much studied by anthropologist Victor Turner
), and postliminaire (post-liminality).
His major work in French folklore was Le Manuel de folklore français contemporain (1937-1958).
He died in 1957 at Bourg-la-Reine
, France
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
ethnographer and folklorist.
Biography
He was born in LudwigsburgLudwigsburg
Ludwigsburg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg urban district with about 87,000 inhabitants...
, Kingdom of Württemberg
Kingdom of Württemberg
The Kingdom of Württemberg was a state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located in present-day Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which came into existence in 1495...
. At the age of six his parents divorced and he and his mother moved to France where she later married a French doctor who moved the family to Savoy
Savoy
Savoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....
.
Van Gennep is best known for his work regarding rites of passage
Rites of Passage
Rites of Passage is an African American History program sponsored by the Stamford, Connecticut US public schools. The program consists of an extra day of schooling on Saturday for 12 weeks, service projects, and a culminating educational trip to Gambia and Senegal. Gambia and Senegal are the...
ceremonies and his significant works in modern French folklore. He is recognised as the founder of folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
studies in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
He went to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to study at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
, but was disappointed that the school did not offer the subjects he wanted. So he enrolled at the Ecole des langues orientales to study Arabic and at the Ecole pratique des hautes etudes for philology, general linguistics, Egyptology, Ancient Arabic, primitive religions, and Islamic culture. This scholarly independence would manifest itself for the remainder of his life. He never held an academic position in France.
From 1912 to 1915 he held the Chair of Ethnography at the University of Neuchatel
University of Neuchâtel
The University of Neuchâtel is a French-speaking university in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The University has five faculties and more than a dozen institutes, including arts and human sciences, natural sciences, law, economics and theology. The Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences is the largest...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
but was expelled for expressing doubts about the neutrality of Switzerland during World War I. There he reorganized the museum and organized the first ethnographical conference (1914). In 1922 he toured the United States.
His most famous work is Les rites de passage (The Rites of Passage) (1909) which includes his vision of rites of passage rituals as being divided into three phases: preliminary, liminaire (liminality
Liminality
Liminality is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes, as defined in neurological psychology and in the anthropological theories of ritual by such writers as Arnold van...
) (a stage much studied by anthropologist Victor Turner
Victor Turner
Victor Witter Turner was a British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals and rites of passage...
), and postliminaire (post-liminality).
His major work in French folklore was Le Manuel de folklore français contemporain (1937-1958).
He died in 1957 at Bourg-la-Reine
Bourg-la-Reine
Bourg-la-Reine is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. The inhabitants are called Réginaburgiens. The town is twinned with Kenilworth, UK.-History:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Influences
- The Rites of Passage was highly influential in the structuring of Joseph CampbellJoseph CampbellJoseph John Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience...
's 1949 text, The Hero with a Thousand FacesThe Hero with a Thousand FacesThe Hero with a Thousand Faces is a non-fiction book, and seminal work of comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell...
, as Campbell divides the journey of the hero into three parts, Departure, Initiation, and Return. - The Rites of Passage influenced anthropologist Victor TurnerVictor TurnerVictor Witter Turner was a British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals and rites of passage...
's research, particularly his 1969 text, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure.
Works
- Le Tissage aux Cartons et son utilisation décorative dans l'Egypte Ancienne, Neuchatel, Switzerland: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1916, co-author Gustave Jeqier. English translation Cardweaving in Ancient Egypt Barbara Shapiro, transl. San Francisco : 2010.
- Traité comparatif des nationalités, Paris: Payot, 1922
- Tabou et Totemisme a Madagascar Etude Descriptive et Theorique, Paris: 1904
- Essai d’une théorie des langues spécialesl, Paris: 1908
- Le folklore français
- The Rites of Passage, 1909. University of Chicago PressUniversity of Chicago PressThe University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style, dozens of academic journals, including Critical Inquiry, and a wide array of...
, 1960. web page
