Jacques Soustelle
Encyclopedia
Jacques Soustelle was an important and early figure of the Free French Forces
and an anthropologist
specializing in pre-Columbian civilizations
. He became vice-director of the Musée de l'Homme
in Paris in 1938. He was elected to the Académie française
in 1983.
in a Protestant working class family. A very brilliant high school student, he was admitted at the first place at the Ecole Normale Supérieure
de la rue d'Ulm, which is still the ultimate college within the French educational system (many Nobel Prize
winners and Fields Medal
ists are among its alumni). At the age of 20, he was admitted at the first place at the competitive exam of agrégation de philosophie (high-level grade for teaching). An anti-fascist
, he was general-secretary in 1935 of the French Union of Intellectuals against Fascism.
to join the Free French Forces
(FFL) in London. Charles de Gaulle
charged him of a diplomatic mission in Latin America (1941), to set up support committees to free France, to cut short the diplomatic efforts of Petainists throughout the continent.
He headed the intelligence service Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action
(BCRA).
He joined the Comité national français, (Government of the Free France, fighting Vichy France
, and the Axis powers
) in London, then ran the commissariat national à l’Information (1942).
Appointed to head the Special Services Branch (DGHS ) in Algiers
in (1943–1944) by the French Committee of National Liberation
), He was Commissioner of the Republic (prefect) in Bordeaux
then in the Liberation deputy of Mayenne
.
by Pierre Mendès-France
in 1955–56, favouring
the integration of the Muslim community in the French Departments along the Mediterranean coast . Thanks to Soustelle's essential support during the May 1958 Algiers revolt
, De Gaulle returned to power.
Though he believed he would become Algeria Secretary, Soustelle was only named Information Minister in June 1958. In 1959, he was appointed Minister of State in charge of Overseas Departments by De Gaulle. He miraculously was safe after three Front de Libération Nationale
(FLN) terrorists attempted to assassinate him by shooting his car on the Place de l'Étoile
in Paris. He got from De Gaulle a presidential pardon for the only attacker who had been arrested and sentenced to death. Soustelle disagreed with De Gaulle's sudden turn for Algerian independence. He has analyzed this turnaround in his book L'Espérance Trahie (Broken Hope). Soustelle was dismissed from the cabinet and the Gaullist party Union pour la nouvelle République
(UNR
) in 1960 and joined the Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS) in the fight for the defence of French Algeria
. When the OAS was replaced by the Conseil National de la Résistance
(CNR), he joined this new organization as one the heads (around Georges Bidault
, former President of the World War II National Council of the Resistance). His activities led him to being sued for attempting to undermine the authority of the French state. He lived in exile between 1961 and his 1968 amnesty.
(France's lower House) three times, first representing Mayenne
in 1945–46, then the Rhône
(1951–58) as a Gaullist, and from 1973 to 1978 as a member of the centrist Mouvement Réformateur
.
Free French Forces
The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
and an anthropologist
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
specializing in pre-Columbian civilizations
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
. He became vice-director of the Musée de l'Homme
Musée de l'Homme
The Musée de l'Homme was created in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne. It is the descendant of the Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro, founded in 1878...
in Paris in 1938. He was elected to the Académie française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
in 1983.
Biography
Jacques Soustelle was born in MontpellierMontpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
in a Protestant working class family. A very brilliant high school student, he was admitted at the first place at the Ecole Normale Supérieure
École Normale Supérieure
The École normale supérieure is one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles...
de la rue d'Ulm, which is still the ultimate college within the French educational system (many Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winners and Fields Medal
Fields Medal
The Fields Medal, officially known as International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union , a meeting that takes place every four...
ists are among its alumni). At the age of 20, he was admitted at the first place at the competitive exam of agrégation de philosophie (high-level grade for teaching). An anti-fascist
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
, he was general-secretary in 1935 of the French Union of Intellectuals against Fascism.
France Libre
After the Armistice of 22 June 1940, he left MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
to join the Free French Forces
Free French Forces
The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
(FFL) in London. Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
charged him of a diplomatic mission in Latin America (1941), to set up support committees to free France, to cut short the diplomatic efforts of Petainists throughout the continent.
He headed the intelligence service Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action
Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action
The Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action , commonly referred as the BCRA was the World War II-era forerunner of the SDECE, the French intelligence service...
(BCRA).
He joined the Comité national français, (Government of the Free France, fighting Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
, and the Axis powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
) in London, then ran the commissariat national à l’Information (1942).
Appointed to head the Special Services Branch (DGHS ) in Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
in (1943–1944) by the French Committee of National Liberation
French Committee of National Liberation
The French Committee of National Liberation was a body formed by the French leaders Gens. Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle to provide united leadership, organize and coordinate the campaign to liberate France from Nazi Germany during World War II. The committee was formed on June 3, 1943 and...
), He was Commissioner of the Republic (prefect) in Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
then in the Liberation deputy of Mayenne
Mayenne
Mayenne is a department in northwest France named after the Mayenne River.-History:Mayenne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. The northern two thirds correspond to the western part of the former province of Maine...
.
Reconstruction of France
In 1945, he served first as Minister of Information, then as Minister of the Colonies. From 1947 to 1951, he served as Secretary General of the Gaullist party Rassemblement du Peuple Français (RPF) and was one De Gaulle's closest councillors.Algeria
He was nominated Governor General of AlgeriaAlgeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
by Pierre Mendès-France
Pierre Mendès-France
Pierre Mendès France was a French politician. He descended from a Portuguese Jewish family that moved to France in the sixteenth century.-Third Republic and World War II:...
in 1955–56, favouring
Soustelle Plan
The Soustelle Plan was a reform program envisioned by Jacques Soustelle, then governor general of Algeria, for the improvement of several administrative, political, social and economic works with the emphasized integration of Muslim Algerians within the French system...
the integration of the Muslim community in the French Departments along the Mediterranean coast . Thanks to Soustelle's essential support during the May 1958 Algiers revolt
May 1958 crisis
The May 1958 crisis was a political crisis in France during the turmoil of the Algerian War of Independence which led to the return of Charles de Gaulle to political responsibilities after a ten year absence...
, De Gaulle returned to power.
Though he believed he would become Algeria Secretary, Soustelle was only named Information Minister in June 1958. In 1959, he was appointed Minister of State in charge of Overseas Departments by De Gaulle. He miraculously was safe after three Front de Libération Nationale
National Liberation Front (Algeria)
The National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on November 1, 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France.- Anticolonial struggle :...
(FLN) terrorists attempted to assassinate him by shooting his car on the Place de l'Étoile
Place de l'Étoile
The Place Charles de Gaulle, , historically known as the Place de l'Étoile , is a large road junction in Paris, France, the meeting point of twelve straight avenues including the Champs-Élysées which continues to the east. It was renamed in 1970 following the death of General and President Charles...
in Paris. He got from De Gaulle a presidential pardon for the only attacker who had been arrested and sentenced to death. Soustelle disagreed with De Gaulle's sudden turn for Algerian independence. He has analyzed this turnaround in his book L'Espérance Trahie (Broken Hope). Soustelle was dismissed from the cabinet and the Gaullist party Union pour la nouvelle République
Union pour la nouvelle République
The Union for the New Republic , was a French political party founded on 1 October 1958 that supported Charles de Gaulle in the French presidential election, 1958- History :The UNR won 206 of 579 seats in the November 1958 elections....
(UNR
UNR
UNR can mean:* National University of Rwanda * University of Nevada, Reno* Universidad Nacional de Rosario, National University of Rosario, Argentina...
) in 1960 and joined the Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS) in the fight for the defence of French Algeria
French Algeria
French Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France, much like Corsica and Réunion are to this day. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest...
. When the OAS was replaced by the Conseil National de la Résistance
Conseil national de la Résistance (1962)
The Conseil national de la Résistance was an underground French nationalist militant organization, founded 20 May 1962 in Rome. It was named after the 1943 Conseil national de la Résistance French resistance organization...
(CNR), he joined this new organization as one the heads (around Georges Bidault
Georges Bidault
Georges-Augustin Bidault was a French politician. During World War II, he was active in the French Resistance. After the war, he served as foreign minister and prime minister on several occasions before he joined the Organisation armée secrète.-Early life:...
, former President of the World War II National Council of the Resistance). His activities led him to being sued for attempting to undermine the authority of the French state. He lived in exile between 1961 and his 1968 amnesty.
National Assembly
Soustelle was elected to France's National AssemblyFrench National Assembly
The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....
(France's lower House) three times, first representing Mayenne
Mayenne
Mayenne is a department in northwest France named after the Mayenne River.-History:Mayenne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. The northern two thirds correspond to the western part of the former province of Maine...
in 1945–46, then the Rhône
Rhône (département)
Rhône is a French department located in the central Eastern region of Rhône-Alpes. It is named after the Rhône River.- History :The Rhône department was created on August 12, 1793 when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire was split into two departments: Rhône and Loire.Originally, the eastern...
(1951–58) as a Gaullist, and from 1973 to 1978 as a member of the centrist Mouvement Réformateur
Reforming Movement
The Reforming Movement was a French centrist political group created in 1972 by the alliance between the Radical Party led by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber and the Christian-democratic Democratic Centre headed by Jean Lecanuet....
.
Honours
- Commandeur de la Légion d'honneurLégion d'honneurThe Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
. - Médaille de la RésistanceMédaille de la RésistanceThe French Médaille de la Résistance was awarded by General Charles de Gaulle "to recognise the remarkable acts of faith and of courage that, in France, in the empire and abroad, have contributed to the resistance of the French people against the enemy and against its accomplices since June 18,...
Selected Publications
- La culture matérielle des Indiens Lacandons (1937)
- La famille otomi-pame du Mexique central (1937)
- Envers et contre tout: souvenirs et documents sur la France libre (1947, 1950)
- La vie quotidienne des Aztèques (1955)
- Aimée et souffrante Algérie (1956)
- Le drame algérien et la décadence française (1957)
- L'espérence trahi, 1958–1961 (1962)
- L'art du Mexique ancien (1966)
- Les quatre soleils: souvenirs et réflexion d'un ethnologue en Mexique (1967)
- La longue marche d'Israël (1968)
- Mexique, terre indienne (1971)
- Les Olmèques (1979)
- Lettre ouvert aux victimes de la decolonisation (1973)
- L'anthropologie française et les civilisations autochtones de l'Amérique (1989)