Maurice Godelier

Maurice Godelier (born 28 February 1934) is a French anthropologist. He is known for his field work among the Baruya in Papua New Guinea from the 1960s to the 1980s, and became one of the earliest advocates of Marxism's incorporation into anthropology. He was a director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris.

Early life and education Maurice Godelier was born on 28 February 1934 to a poor family in provincial France in the commune Cambrai. Godelier received an associate degree in philosophy, a degree in psychology, and a degree in modern literature. During his early education, he was especially interested in the works of Husserl.

Career Godelier is best known as one of the earliest advocates of Marxism's incorporation into anthropology. From 1966 to 1969, he conducted his first major anthropological field study on the Baruya in Papua New Guinea. His research provided significant contributions to the limited understanding of New Guinea cultures. as well as another 13-part series.

In 1982, he used his research to write an ethnography on the Baruya. The book, entitled The Making of Great Men (La production des grands hommes), discusses sex- and gender-based inequality and provided insight into the systems of power in Melanesia. His analysis of the systems of power was further developed in Big Men and Great Men, published in 1991, which he co-edited with Marilyn Strathern.

He became director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris.

Other activities From 2000 to 2003, Godelier served on various organizations related to research in social sciences in Europe and his anthropological work in Oceania. He was the president of the Société des océanistes from 2013 to 2015.

Recognition 1981: Honorary degree from the Université catholique de Louvain 1982: Prix de l'Académie française 1990: Prix international Alexander von Humboldt en Sciences Sociales 2001: Gold medal of the CNRS 2007: Médaille de la Ville de Paris 2008: Grand Prix de l'Essai 2008 de la Société des gens de lettres 2008: Prix Louis Castex of the Académie Française, for Au fondement des sociétés humaines. Ce que nous apprend l'anthropologie 2009: Prix de l'Union Rationaliste, for his life's work 2013: Prix de la Fondation Martine Aublet, for Lévi-Strauss

Selected publications Rationalité et irrationalité en économie – 1969 (2 volumes) (Rationality and Irrationality in Economics, London : NLB, 1972). La production des grands hommes. Pouvoir et domination masculine chez les Baruya de Nouvelle Guinée, Ed. Fayard (1982). (The Making of Great Men. Male domination and Power among the New Guinea Baruya, Cambridge University Press, 1986). Prize of the French Academy. L'idéel et le matériel, Ed. Fayard (1984). (The Mental and the Material. Thought, economy and society, Verso,1986). L'énigme du don, Ed. Fayard (1996). (The Enigma of the Gift, Chicago, Cambridge; University of Chicago Press, Polity Press, 1998, ). Meurtre du père, sacrifice de la sexualité,1996. La production du corps. Approches anthropologiques et historiques and Le corps humain. Conçu. Supplicié, possédé, cannibalisé. Texts collected and edited by Maurice Godelier and Michel Panoff. Amsterdam, Archives contemporaines (1998). Métamorphoses de la parenté. Paris: Fayard.. OCLC 61137773. Lévi-Strauss, Paris: Le Seuil, 2013, (592 p.) / Tr. by Nora Scott, (2018) Claude Lévi-Strauss, A Critical Study of His Thought, Verso books, (560 p.).