Jean Malaurie
Encyclopedia
Jean Malaurie was born on December 22, 1922 in Mainz
(Germany). He is a French cultural anthropologist, geographer, physicist and writer, as well as the Director and founder of the Terre Humaine series (Ed. Plon, France).
into a French catholic family of scholars (history) of both Norman (Pays de Caux) and Scottish descent. He was struck during his childhood by the legendary tales of the Rhine castles. In 1943, while studying at the Lycée Henri-IV (Paris) to prepare for the entrance examination for the post graduate school, École Normale Supérieure
Ulm, he was drafted in June 1943 into the Service du travail obligatoire
(STO - Compulsory Work Service). Having refused to join, he went into hiding and was searched by the police until August 1944.
He did his postgraduate studies in the Institut de Géographie de l’Université de Paris, under Professor Emmanuel de Martonne who, some 15 years earlier, had also taught to Julien Gracq
. In 1948, Emmanuel de Martonne granted Malaurie the title of geographer/physicist of the French Polar Expeditions led by Paul Emile Victor along the West coast of Greenland and on its ice cap. He accomplished two missions in the Skansen Mountain, in the south of Disko Island
, with the French Polar Expeditions (spring/autumn 1948 and 1949).
After two geomorphological and geocryological missions for the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – CNRS (“French National Centre for Scientific Research”), he spent two winters alone in the Hoggar desert in 1949 and 1950 (Algeria, Sahara). Then in July 1950, he left on a mission to Thule
, Greenland, where he led the “first French geographical and ethnological mission to the North of Greenland” for the CNRS. There, he established the first genealogy, covering four generations, of a group of 302 Inughuit, the Northern most people on Earth. He also implemented a planning of trends in order to avoid the risks of consanguinity (banning marriage up to the 5th degree).
As a geomorphologist in the Great North of Greenland, he raised the map of the coast to 1:100 000 (topography, geomorphology of screes and nivation, sea ice). The map covers a 300 kilometre long and 3 kilometre wide region from Inglefield Land and the North of the Humboldt Glacier, to the South of Washington Land (Cape Jackson, 80° N). He discovered various fjords and unknown littorals, which he was authorized to name himself after French names, like the Paris Fjord, or after his Inuit travel companions such as the famous shaman, Uutaaq. He conducted a detailed geomorphological study of the screes and high latitude geocryological ecosystems, of which he described the cyclic and strata organization. He later made this the subject of his thesis: Thèmes de recherche géomorphologique dans le nord-ouest du Groenland (Geomorphological research in Northwest Greenland). On April 9, 1962, he was named Docteur d’État de géographie of the Institut de géographie de la Faculté des lettres de l'université de Paris.
He was the first man ever to reach the geomagnetic North Pole (78°29′N 68°54′W) on May 29, 1951, with two dog sleds, together with the Inuit man Kutsikitsoq. On June 16, 1951 he discovered the American military base of Thule (Thule Air Base
), built in secret to host nuclear bombers, and he decided to publicly stand up against the establishment of this base, for which the local population wasn’t consulted.
His book Les Derniers rois de Thulé (The Last Kings of Thule) was published in 1955 as the founding book of the Terre Humaine series (Ed. Plon, Paris). It was soon followed by other classics such as Tristes Tropiques by Claude Lévi-Strauss
, Les Immémoriaux by Victor Segalen
, Affables Sauvages by Francis Huxley, Soleil Hopi by Don C. Talayesva
, Pour l’Afrique, j’accuse by René Dumont
and Carnets d’enquêtes by Émile Zola
. The Terre Humaine series intends to move the focus away from our Western way of looking at things. In 1957, he was recommended by Fernand Braudel
and Claude Lévi-Strauss
, and elected to the Chair of Polar Geography, the first ever in the history of the French University, created for this occasion within the École des hautes études en sciences sociales
– EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences). He then founded in 1958, the Centre d'études arctiques (Center for Arctic Studies) and launched in 1960 the great CNRS journal on the Arctic: Inter-Nord.
In 1968-1969, he led the French section of the Governmental Commission of France and Quebec during the creation of the autonomous territory of New Quebec, now called Nunavik
. His recommendations, published in the book Du Nouveau-Québec au Nunavik, 1964-2004, une fragile autonomie (From New Quebec to Nunavik, 1964–2004, a Fragile Autonomy) and in the special section « Nunavik/Ungava » of the Inter-Nord publication n°20, aimed to establish the immediate autonomy of this territory and a deep pedagogical reform of the education system. They contributed to elaborating the status of the current Canadian Arctic Territories, mainly inspired by Charlie Watt
, an Inuit Federal Senator.
Jean Malaurie led the first Franco-Soviet expedition in Siberian Chukotka
in 1990, at the request of the Soviet government and of the Academician, Dimitri Likhatchev, Scientific Counsellor to Mikhail Gorbachev
. He was also the first Westerner to discover the Whale Alley in 1990 in Northeast Siberia; a monument that had remained ignored until it was first identified by the Soviet archaeologist Sergueï Arutiunov in 1977. In 1992, Jean Malaurie founded the State Polar Academy in Saint-Petersburg, of which he was named Honorary President for life. In this school of Siberian executives, that hosts around a thousand boarder students, representing forty-five ethnic groups, in five faculties, French is taught as the first foreign language in a compulsory course.
In the course of his 31 missions, from Greenland to Siberia, he taught a method — called "anthropogeography, from stone to man" — reminding how the history, rituals and sociology of the Arctic peoples can only be understood in the frame of a given physical environment. These observations are linked to cybernetics with the Gaia principle, based on the conclusions of James Lovelock
, shared by Jean Malaurie: the Earth would be "a dynamic physiological system that includes the biosphere and has kept our planet fit for life for over three billion years".
Jean Malaurie is an ardent defender of the rights of Arctic minorities, currently threatened by the development of industries and oil activities in the Great North. He has been an advisor to the four capital cities: Washington
, Ottawa
, Copenhagen
and Moscow
. In 2007, he was named UNESCO
Goodwill Ambassador for Arctic polar issues (Fields of Sciences and Culture), and was invited to chair the first UNESCO International Experts Meeting on the Arctic: Climate change and Arctic sustainable development: scientific, social, cultural and educational challenges, which took place in Monaco from the 3rd to the 6th of March 2009. He is currently preparing, in collaboration with UNESCO, the upcoming International Congress on Circumpolar Peoples, to be held in 2011 in Greenland.
In 2007, he was appointed Honorary President of the Uummannaq Polar Institute, an institution that aims to preserve local Greenlandic culture and promote educational programmes for Inuit youth. In 2010, he founded the Pôle Inuit – Institut Jean Malaurie in Uummannaq (Greenland). As a writer, he is the author of, among other publications, The Last Kings of Thule (“Les derniers rois de Thulé”, Paris, 1955; first published in English in 1982), translated into 23 languages and now the most widely distributed book about the Inuit people. This book has been adapted into a movie and the cartoon version is in progress. Overall, Jean Malaurie published ten books and over five hundred scientific papers, which have just been assembled, together with previously unpublished ones, into a six volumes edition to be published by the CNRS Éditions.
A leading light of French polar research, in the lineage of Commander Jean-Baptiste Charcot, captain of the Pourquoi-Pas ?, he is now living in Dieppe
, Normandy, and getting ready to finish his life in Uummannaq, Northwest coast of Greenland, where a Jean Malaurie Museum has been created that features a reconstitution of his former wintering base in a peat house.
He was awarded the French title of "Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur" and the Great Gold Medal of Saint-Petersburg, and received the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society
of London from the Queen herself. He was also granted the Medal of the Bear, a high distinction of the Greenlandic government, as well as many other foreign distinctions such as the Mungo Park Medal, awarded to him in 2005 by The Royal Scottish Geographic Society.
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
(Germany). He is a French cultural anthropologist, geographer, physicist and writer, as well as the Director and founder of the Terre Humaine series (Ed. Plon, France).
Biography
Jean Malaurie was born in MainzMainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
into a French catholic family of scholars (history) of both Norman (Pays de Caux) and Scottish descent. He was struck during his childhood by the legendary tales of the Rhine castles. In 1943, while studying at the Lycée Henri-IV (Paris) to prepare for the entrance examination for the post graduate school, École Normale Supérieure
École Normale Supérieure
The École normale supérieure is one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles...
Ulm, he was drafted in June 1943 into the Service du travail obligatoire
Service du travail obligatoire
The Service du travail obligatoire was the forced enlistment and deportation of hundreds of thousands of French workers to Nazi Germany in order to work as forced labour for the German war effort during World War II....
(STO - Compulsory Work Service). Having refused to join, he went into hiding and was searched by the police until August 1944.
He did his postgraduate studies in the Institut de Géographie de l’Université de Paris, under Professor Emmanuel de Martonne who, some 15 years earlier, had also taught to Julien Gracq
Julien Gracq
Julien Gracq , born Louis Poirier in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, in the French département of Maine-et-Loire, was a French writer. He wrote novels, critiques, a play, and poetry. His literary works were noted for their Surrealism.Gracq first studied in Paris at the Lycée Henri IV, where he earned his...
. In 1948, Emmanuel de Martonne granted Malaurie the title of geographer/physicist of the French Polar Expeditions led by Paul Emile Victor along the West coast of Greenland and on its ice cap. He accomplished two missions in the Skansen Mountain, in the south of Disko Island
Disko Island
Disko Island is a large island in Baffin Bay, off the west coast of Greenland. It has an area of , making it the second largest island of Greenland and one of the 100 largest islands in the world...
, with the French Polar Expeditions (spring/autumn 1948 and 1949).
After two geomorphological and geocryological missions for the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – CNRS (“French National Centre for Scientific Research”), he spent two winters alone in the Hoggar desert in 1949 and 1950 (Algeria, Sahara). Then in July 1950, he left on a mission to Thule
Thule
Thule Greek: Θούλη, Thoulē), also spelled Thula, Thila, or Thyïlea, is, in classical European literature and maps, a region in the far north. Though often considered to be an island in antiquity, modern interpretations of what was meant by Thule often identify it as Norway. Other interpretations...
, Greenland, where he led the “first French geographical and ethnological mission to the North of Greenland” for the CNRS. There, he established the first genealogy, covering four generations, of a group of 302 Inughuit, the Northern most people on Earth. He also implemented a planning of trends in order to avoid the risks of consanguinity (banning marriage up to the 5th degree).
As a geomorphologist in the Great North of Greenland, he raised the map of the coast to 1:100 000 (topography, geomorphology of screes and nivation, sea ice). The map covers a 300 kilometre long and 3 kilometre wide region from Inglefield Land and the North of the Humboldt Glacier, to the South of Washington Land (Cape Jackson, 80° N). He discovered various fjords and unknown littorals, which he was authorized to name himself after French names, like the Paris Fjord, or after his Inuit travel companions such as the famous shaman, Uutaaq. He conducted a detailed geomorphological study of the screes and high latitude geocryological ecosystems, of which he described the cyclic and strata organization. He later made this the subject of his thesis: Thèmes de recherche géomorphologique dans le nord-ouest du Groenland (Geomorphological research in Northwest Greenland). On April 9, 1962, he was named Docteur d’État de géographie of the Institut de géographie de la Faculté des lettres de l'université de Paris.
He was the first man ever to reach the geomagnetic North Pole (78°29′N 68°54′W) on May 29, 1951, with two dog sleds, together with the Inuit man Kutsikitsoq. On June 16, 1951 he discovered the American military base of Thule (Thule Air Base
Thule Air Base
Thule Air Base or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport , is the United States Air Force's northernmost base, located north of the Arctic Circle and from the North Pole on the northwest side of the island of Greenland. It is approximately east of the North Magnetic Pole.-Overview:Thule Air Base is the...
), built in secret to host nuclear bombers, and he decided to publicly stand up against the establishment of this base, for which the local population wasn’t consulted.
His book Les Derniers rois de Thulé (The Last Kings of Thule) was published in 1955 as the founding book of the Terre Humaine series (Ed. Plon, Paris). It was soon followed by other classics such as Tristes Tropiques by Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist, and has been called, along with James George Frazer, the "father of modern anthropology"....
, Les Immémoriaux by Victor Segalen
Victor Segalen
Victor Segalen was a French naval doctor, ethnographer, archeologist, writer, poet, explorer, art-theorist, linguist and literary critic....
, Affables Sauvages by Francis Huxley, Soleil Hopi by Don C. Talayesva
Don C. Talayesva
Don C. Talayesva was a Hopi who is noted for his autobiography, which was written in conjunction with Leo Simmons. Talayesva had begun life in a traditional Hopi manner, but had spent ten years largely in white culture before making a full return to the Hopi way...
, Pour l’Afrique, j’accuse by René Dumont
René Dumont
René Dumont was a French engineer in agronomy, a sociologist, and an environmental politician.He was born in Cambrai, Nord, in the north of France. His father was a professor in agriculture and his grandfather was a farmer. He graduated from the INA P-G, as an engineer in agronomy...
and Carnets d’enquêtes by Émile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
. The Terre Humaine series intends to move the focus away from our Western way of looking at things. In 1957, he was recommended by Fernand Braudel
Fernand Braudel
Fernand Braudel was a French historian and a leader of the Annales School. His scholarship focused on three main projects, each representing several decades of intense study: The Mediterranean , Civilization and Capitalism , and the unfinished Identity of France...
and Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist, and has been called, along with James George Frazer, the "father of modern anthropology"....
, and elected to the Chair of Polar Geography, the first ever in the history of the French University, created for this occasion within the École des hautes études en sciences sociales
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
The École des hautes études en sciences sociales is a leading French institution for research and higher education, a Grand Établissement. Its mission is research and research training in the social sciences, including the relationship these latter maintain with the natural and life sciences...
– EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences). He then founded in 1958, the Centre d'études arctiques (Center for Arctic Studies) and launched in 1960 the great CNRS journal on the Arctic: Inter-Nord.
In 1968-1969, he led the French section of the Governmental Commission of France and Quebec during the creation of the autonomous territory of New Quebec, now called Nunavik
Nunavik
Nunavik comprises the northern third of the province of Quebec, Canada. Covering a land area of 443,684.71 km² north of the 55th parallel, it is the homeland of the Inuit of Quebec...
. His recommendations, published in the book Du Nouveau-Québec au Nunavik, 1964-2004, une fragile autonomie (From New Quebec to Nunavik, 1964–2004, a Fragile Autonomy) and in the special section « Nunavik/Ungava » of the Inter-Nord publication n°20, aimed to establish the immediate autonomy of this territory and a deep pedagogical reform of the education system. They contributed to elaborating the status of the current Canadian Arctic Territories, mainly inspired by Charlie Watt
Charlie Watt
Charlie Watt is a Canadian Senator.A hunter and businessman by profession, Watt is an Inuk and served as Northern officer with the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs from 1969 to 1979. He founded the Northern Quebec Inuit Association in the 1970s...
, an Inuit Federal Senator.
Jean Malaurie led the first Franco-Soviet expedition in Siberian Chukotka
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug , or Chukotka , is a federal subject of Russia located in the Russian Far East.Chukotka has a population of 53,824 according to the 2002 Census, and a surface area of . The principal town and the administrative center is Anadyr...
in 1990, at the request of the Soviet government and of the Academician, Dimitri Likhatchev, Scientific Counsellor to Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
. He was also the first Westerner to discover the Whale Alley in 1990 in Northeast Siberia; a monument that had remained ignored until it was first identified by the Soviet archaeologist Sergueï Arutiunov in 1977. In 1992, Jean Malaurie founded the State Polar Academy in Saint-Petersburg, of which he was named Honorary President for life. In this school of Siberian executives, that hosts around a thousand boarder students, representing forty-five ethnic groups, in five faculties, French is taught as the first foreign language in a compulsory course.
In the course of his 31 missions, from Greenland to Siberia, he taught a method — called "anthropogeography, from stone to man" — reminding how the history, rituals and sociology of the Arctic peoples can only be understood in the frame of a given physical environment. These observations are linked to cybernetics with the Gaia principle, based on the conclusions of James Lovelock
James Lovelock
James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling...
, shared by Jean Malaurie: the Earth would be "a dynamic physiological system that includes the biosphere and has kept our planet fit for life for over three billion years".
Jean Malaurie is an ardent defender of the rights of Arctic minorities, currently threatened by the development of industries and oil activities in the Great North. He has been an advisor to the four capital cities: Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. In 2007, he was named UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
Goodwill Ambassador for Arctic polar issues (Fields of Sciences and Culture), and was invited to chair the first UNESCO International Experts Meeting on the Arctic: Climate change and Arctic sustainable development: scientific, social, cultural and educational challenges, which took place in Monaco from the 3rd to the 6th of March 2009. He is currently preparing, in collaboration with UNESCO, the upcoming International Congress on Circumpolar Peoples, to be held in 2011 in Greenland.
In 2007, he was appointed Honorary President of the Uummannaq Polar Institute, an institution that aims to preserve local Greenlandic culture and promote educational programmes for Inuit youth. In 2010, he founded the Pôle Inuit – Institut Jean Malaurie in Uummannaq (Greenland). As a writer, he is the author of, among other publications, The Last Kings of Thule (“Les derniers rois de Thulé”, Paris, 1955; first published in English in 1982), translated into 23 languages and now the most widely distributed book about the Inuit people. This book has been adapted into a movie and the cartoon version is in progress. Overall, Jean Malaurie published ten books and over five hundred scientific papers, which have just been assembled, together with previously unpublished ones, into a six volumes edition to be published by the CNRS Éditions.
A leading light of French polar research, in the lineage of Commander Jean-Baptiste Charcot, captain of the Pourquoi-Pas ?, he is now living in Dieppe
Dieppe, Seine-Maritime
Dieppe is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in France. In 1999, the population of the whole Dieppe urban area was 81,419.A port on the English Channel, famous for its scallops, and with a regular ferry service from the Gare Maritime to Newhaven in England, Dieppe also has a popular pebbled...
, Normandy, and getting ready to finish his life in Uummannaq, Northwest coast of Greenland, where a Jean Malaurie Museum has been created that features a reconstitution of his former wintering base in a peat house.
He was awarded the French title of "Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur" and the Great Gold Medal of Saint-Petersburg, and received the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
of London from the Queen herself. He was also granted the Medal of the Bear, a high distinction of the Greenlandic government, as well as many other foreign distinctions such as the Mungo Park Medal, awarded to him in 2005 by The Royal Scottish Geographic Society.
Titles
- Founder and Director of the Terre Humaine series, Ed. Plon, Paris (since February 1954). This series of books initiated an important intellectual trend called « Pléiade d’une nouvelle ethnologie » ("Pleiad of a new ethnology"). Its one hundredth author will be published in the course of this year.
- Elected first chair of Polar Geography (French higher education), founded at EHESS (Paris, France) by the Professor Fernand Braudel (1957→). Seminars delivered from 1957 to 2004 (One hundred thesis and PhD defences).
- Founder of the Centre d’études arctiques (Center for Arctic Studies) (EHESS, CNRS), (1958 →)
- Founder and Director of the Fondation française d’études nordiques (French Foundation for Nordic Studies) in Rouen, France, created on May 11, 1964. (1964–1975)
- Directeur de recherche titulaire in the French CNRS (since 1979).
- Director of the CNRS base in Spitzberg from 1979 to 1990, with a programme of integrated geomorphology for ten PhD students.
- Creation of the Festival du Film arctique in 1983 (1983, DieppeDieppe, Seine-MaritimeDieppe is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in France. In 1999, the population of the whole Dieppe urban area was 81,419.A port on the English Channel, famous for its scallops, and with a regular ferry service from the Gare Maritime to Newhaven in England, Dieppe also has a popular pebbled...
; 1986, RovaniemiRovaniemiRovaniemi is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland's northernmost province, Lapland. It is situated close to the Arctic Circle and is between the hills of Ounasvaara and Korkalovaara, at the confluence of the Kemijoki River and its...
; 1989, FermoFermoFermo is a town and comune of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo.Fermo is located on a hill, the Sabulo with a fine view, on a branch from Porto San Giorgio on the Adriatic coast railway....
; the fourth edition of the Festival is currently in preparation in UummannaqUummannaqUummannaq is a town in the Qaasuitsup municipality, in northwestern Greenland. With 1,299 inhabitants as of 2010, it is the eleventh-largest town in Greenland, and is home to the country's most northerly ferry terminal...
, Greenland). - Director and Founder of the Fonds polaire Jean Malaurie in the Central Library of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelleMuséum national d'histoire naturelleThe Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle is the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France.- History :The museum was formally founded on 10 June 1793, during the French Revolution...
, Paris, France (1992 →). - Director and Founder of the International Arctic Publication Inter-Nord, (CNRS - EHESS), 21 volumes (1960 →). The contributions of 300 authors were published in this bilingual magazine, building a genuine 6 500 pages encyclopaedia of the Arctic.
- The first man ever to have reached the geomagnetic North Pole by dog sled on May 29, 1951.
- 31 missions, most of them solo, from Greenland to Siberia (1948–1997).
- Teacher and Director of Studies at EHESS: defence and illustration of the anthropogeographic method for the study of peoples under extreme climates (1957–2004).
- Honorary President of the State Polar Academy of Saint Petersburg, which he co-founded in 1992. The State Polar Academy, a school of Siberian executives, was registered in the International Association of Francophone Universities in 2004, and signed a cooperation agreement with the Institut régional d'administration (IRA) of Lille, France (2005–2007).
- Honorary President of the Opening Symposium of the International Polar YearInternational Polar YearThe International Polar Year is a collaborative, international effort researching the polar regions. Karl Weyprecht, an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, motivated the endeavor, but died before it first occurred in 1882-1883. Fifty years later a second IPY occurred...
(IPY) on « Arctic issues: environment, societies and heritage », held from 8 to 10 March 2007 in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris, France. The event was organized under the high patronage of the French President Jacques Chirac, who delivered the opening speech. This symposium brought together top researchers and political personalities from all over the World, including French, Inuit and North-Siberian specialists. It was the 14th of a series of International Symposiums held by the Centre d’études arctiques (Center for Arctic Studies) at the instigation of Pr Jean Malaurie. It gathered participants from various parts of the World, and notably from Russia. The 50th anniversary of the Centre d’études arctiques, celebrated during the IPY, was the object of a “National Commemoration” by the French Ministry of Culture. The first pan-Inuit conference ever to be organized was held in Rouen, France, from 24 to 27 November 1969, under the presidency of Nobel Prize winner René Cassin[9]. It addressed the issues of “Economical Development in the Arctic and the future of Eskimo Societies”. Jean Malaurie also organized the first Arctic Oil and Gas Congress in Le Havre, France, on May 2–5, 1973. - UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Arctic polar issues in the fields of Sciences and Culture (2007).
- Honorary President of the Uummannaq Polar Institute (Greenland).
- Honorary Patron of the NGO Libraries Without Borders.
- Founder and President of the Pôle Inuit – Institut Jean Malaurie, created under the aegis of the Centre d’études arctiques and in partnership with the Uummannaq Polar Institute (Greenland). Its aim is to welcome and sponsor two Greenlandic students every year, providing them with a Master lever training and involving them in CNRS research missions.
Scientific distinctions
- Prix de l’Académie des sciences, a prize from the French Academy of SciencesFrench Academy of SciencesThe French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research...
(1967). - Médaille d’Or (“Gold Medal”) of the Société arctique française (1990).
- Awarded a Medal from the CNRS (“French National Center for Scientific Research”) in 1992.
- Grande Médaille de la Société de géographieSociété de GéographieThe Société de Géographie , is the world's oldest geographical society. It was founded in 1821 . Since 1878, its headquarters has been at 184 Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris. The entrance is marked by two gigantic caryatids representing Land and Sea...
(Paris, 1997). - Honorary Doctor of Saint Petersburg State University (2001).
- Received the Great Gold Konstantin Medal from the Russian Geographical Society (Saint-Petersburg, 2003).
- Patron's Gold Medal, signed by HRH Queen Elizabeth II (Royal Geographic Society, London, 2005).
- Mungo Park Medal (The Royal Scottish Geographic Society, 2005).
- Honorary Professor of Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales – HEC (Graduate Business School), (Paris, 2005).
- Honorary Doctor of the State University of New York at Buffalo, 2008.
- NersornaatNersornaatNersornaat or the Greenland Medal for Meritorious Service , is awarded by the Greenland Home Rule government. It is the highest award based in Greenland. The medal was instituted on 1 May 1989 in connection with the ten year anniversary of the Greenlandic home rule...
distinction, Gold Medal of the Greenlandic Parliament received on February 27, 2009, in Paris from the President of the Greenlandic Parliament, Mrs Ruth Heilman.
Awards and Medals
- Commandeur de l’Ordre national du Mérite (France, 2002).
- Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres (France, 2000).
- Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur (France, 2005).
- Polar Bear Distinction, personally awarded by the Prime Minister of Greenland himself, Mr Jonathan Motzfeldt, in Paris, France (1999).
- Prix de l’Académie française (France, 1968).
- Grand prix de la Ville de Paris (France, 1999).
- Grand Prix Jules-Verne (France, 2000).
- Commander of the Royal Order of the DannebrogOrder of the DannebrogThe Order of the Dannebrog is an Order of Denmark, instituted in 1671 by Christian V. It resulted from a move in 1660 to break the absolutism of the nobility. The Order was only to comprise 50 noble Knights in one class plus the Master of the Order, i.e. the Danish monarch, and his sons...
, on the request of HRH the Queen of Denmark (2007), awarded in Paris by HRH Prince Henrik of Denmark (2007).
Other foreign distinctions
- Elected Sage des peuples du Nord by the Institute of Peoples of the North, Herzen State University, Leningrad (1992).
- Honorary Citizen of the city of Fermo (Italy), home to the Istituto geografico polare and the Italian Museo polare (1998).
- Medal of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (March 12, 1997)
- Received the Congratulations of the Canadian Senate on his scientific work, according to the will of Inuit Senator Mr Charlie Watt (Ottawa, June 15, 2000).
- Médaille d’Or de Saint-Pétersbourg (“Gold Medal of Saint Petersburg”) on the occasion of the city’s tercentenary, awarded in Paris by the Russian Ambassador H.E. Mr Alexandre Alexeevitch Avdeev (2003).
Works
- Hoggar, Touareg, Journal d’une exploration géographique (Paris, Ed. Nathan, 1954).
- Les derniers rois de Thulé: avec les Esquimaux polaires, face à leur destin (Paris, Ed. Plon, Terre humaine series, 1955 – 5th definitive edition, Paris, 1989 ; Ed. Pocket, 2001) – translated into 23 languages.
- The last kings of Thule: with the Polar Eskimos, as they face their destiny, English translation of Les derniers rois de Thulé, translated from the French by Adrienne Foulke (London: Jonathan Cape, 1982. 489p; New York: Chicago University Press, 1982. 489p.)
- Thèmes de recherche géomorphologique dans le nord-ouest du Groenland, 497 p., 79 photos, 161 fig., 1 coloured map (topography, botany and hydrology) to 1:25 000 (Skansen, Disko), 1 couloured map (topography, geomorphology and sea ice) to 1:200 000 – Thesis defended in 1962 - ('Mémoires et documents', Special issue, Paris, CNRS Editions, 1968 ; 2d Ed., Paris, 2011, in: Grand Nord Grand Large - CNRS Editions, including iconography).
- Hummocks I and II (Paris, Ed. Plon, Terre humaine series, 1999). Hummocks, extended edition, 4 volumes (Paris, Ed. Plon / Pocket, 2003, 2005).
- Hummocks, Journeys and inquiries among the Canadian Inuit, English translation of Hummocks, translated by Peter Feldstein. (Montreal, Quebec: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007. New foreword by Jean Malaurie, postface by Bruce Jackson.)
- Ultima Thulé (2d edition, Paris, Ed. Le Chêne, 2000, Ed. Pocket, 2001) – translated into English, German and Danish.
- Ultima Thulé : explorers and natives of the polar North, translated from the French by Willard Wood and Anthony Roberts. (New York; London: W.W. Norton, 2000.)
- L’Appel du Nord (Paris, Ed. La Martinière, 2001) translated into English and German.
- Call of the North: an explorer’s journey to the North Pole, English translation of L’Appel du Nord. (New York, Abrams, 2001)
- L’Allée des baleines (Paris, Ed. Fayard, Mille et une nuits series, 2003, New extended edition 2008) translated into Russian and English.
- The Whales Alley, English translation of L’Allée des baleines, in press. • Alleia Kitov, Russian translation of L’Allée des baleines, foreword by Serguei Arutiunov (Moscow, Ed. Nota Bene, 2007)
- Ot kamnia k tcheloveku (“From stone to man”), foreword by Azourguet Tarbaievna Shaoukenbaieva, in Russian. (Saint-Petersburg, State Polar Academy of Saint-Petersburg, 2003).
- Terre Humaine : cinquante ans d'une collection, entretien de Mauricette Berne et Pierrette Crouzet avec Jean Malaurie ; foreword by French President Jacques Chirac, introduction by Jean-Noël Jeanneney, President of the Bibliothèque nationale de FranceBibliothèque nationale de FranceThe is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
(French National Library), presentations by Olivier Orban, Director of the Plon publishing house, Bruce JacksonBruce Jackson (scholar)Bruce Jackson is an American folklorist, documentary filmmaker, writer and photographer. He is the James Agee Professor of American Culture at the University of Buffalo. Jackson has edited or authored 25 books and his articles have appeared in numerous magazines...
, Jacques LacarrièreJacques LacarrièreJacques Lacarrière was a French writer. He studied moral philosophy, classical literature and Hindu philosophy and literature...
, (Paris, éditions de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2005), 135 p. - Terre Mère (Paris, CNRS Editions, 2008).
- Uummaa : la prescience sauvage (Paris, Ed. Plon, Terre humaine series, to be released in 2011).
- Arctica, 1948-2010, une prescience de combat (5 volumes) to be released by CNRS Editions. Collection of 500 scientific papers (some of which unpublished); released in French, English, German and Russian. Volume 1 : En éclaireur ; Volume 2 : Écosystème arctique ; Volume 3 : Ethnologie et anthropologie arctiques ; Volume 4 : Développement durable et périls de perte d’identité des peuples premiers circumpolaires ; Volume 5 : Terre Humaine, entretiens et portraits.
- Several hundreds interviews (press, television, radio, Internet), in French, Russian, English, Italian, German, Danish and Greenlandic.
Filmography
- The Last Kings of Thule (“Les Derniers Rois de Thulé”) Northern Greenland. Direction and commentaries. Film, 16 mm, colour, 120 min. ORTF (Télévision Paris), 1970 :
- 1st part: L'Esquimau polaire, le chasseur. (“The Polar Eskimo, a Hunter”)
- 2d part: L'Esquimau chômeur et imprévisible. (“The unemployed and unpredictable Eskimo”)
- Reedited into a 52 min film, and restored with the original colours, under the direction of Jean Malaurie. Production: Films du Village/Zarafa and France 5, INA, Paris, in 2002. Greenlandic and American Production.
- Inuit (Groenland, Canada, Alaska, Sibérie). Seven 16 mm coloured films, shot in 1974/1976. Antenne 2 (TV Paris), 1980. Direction and commentaries, INA, Paris.
- Le Cri universel du peuple esquimau (“The Universal Cry of the Eskimo People”). 87 min
- Les Groenlandais et le Danemark. Nunarput (Notre Terre) (“Greenlanders and Denmark, Nunarput – ‘Our Land’ ”). 55 min
- Les Groenlandais et le Danemark : le Groenland se lève. (“Greenlanders and Denmark: Greenland is rising”) 55 min
- Les Esquimaux et le Canada : l'incommunicabilité. (“The Eskimo and Canada: communication breakdown”) 55 min
- Les Esquimaux alaskiens et les États-Unis d'Amérique : les fils de la baleine. (“The Eskimo of Alaska and the United States of America: the Sons of the Whale”) 55 min
- Les Esquimaux alaskiens et les États-Unis d'Amérique : pétrodollars et pouvoir. (“The Eskimo of Alaska and the United States of America: petrodollar and power”) 55 min
- Les Esquimaux d'Asie et l'Union soviétique : aux sources de l'histoire inuit. (“The Eskimo of Asia and the Soviet Union: back to the roots of Inuit history”) 55 min
- Haïnak-Inuit, le cri universel du peuple esquimau. (“Haïnak-Inuit, the Universal Cry of the Eskimo People”) New version based on the 1980 programme. 52 min. Direction, commentaries and new images updating the seven films of the Inuit series. INA, 1993 (France 5 : broadcasted in December 1995).
- La Saga des Inuit. Four 52 min films, made from Jean Malaurie’s 10 films and followed by a long close-up interview. Production INA, distribution France 5, 2007. Rerun in 2008. DVD Box set, INA, Paris, 2007.
- Un peuple légendaire (“A legendary people”)
- Vers le meilleur des mondes ? (Groenland, Canada) (“Towards the Best of Worlds (Greenland and Canada)”)
- Le futur a déjà commencé (Alaska, Tchoukotka sibérienne) (“The Future has already begun, (Alaska, Siberian Chukotka)”)
- Le Souffle du Grand Nord (entretien/portrait) (“The Blow of the Great North (close-up interview)”)
Films about Jean Malaurie
- Jean Malaurie : Une passion arctique, Directed by Michel Viotte, La compagnie des Indes, Arte, Paris, 2010, 43 min.
- Numerous interviews on Antenne 2, France 3, as well as foreign television channels (Moscow, Montreal, Nuuk…).
Sound archives
- Chez les Esquimaux Netsiligmiout et Outkoukiksarlormiout (“Together with the Eskimo Netsiligmiout and Outkoukiksarlormiout”) – 28 min 46 s (Chant du Monde, 1962–63)
- Chants et tambours inuit, de Thulé au Détroit de Béring (“Inuit Chants and Drums, from Thule to the Bering Strait”) – 70 min 43 s (Ocora C 559021, Paris, 1988)
- Jean Malaurie - De la pierre à l'homme (“From Stone to Man”), Les Grandes Heures series, 2 discs of 72 minutes each, built from interviews given by Jean Malaurie for Radio France and preserved by the French Institut National de l’Audiovisuel - INA (Editor-in-charge: Béatrice Montoriol – Production: Thérèse Salviat – INA/Radio France, Paris, 2004)