Paul Rivet (1876-1958), Le savant et le politique

Abstract

Known as the founder of the Musée de l’Homme, Paul Rivet is still an obscure figure in his disciplinary field, whereas he contributed powerfully to build the shapes of french ethnology in the 1920/1930’s. This intellectual biography intends to rediscover him. Back from a five-year mission in Ecuador in 1906, which provoked his vocation, Paul Rivet turns away from anthropometry and revitalizes the anthropological project thanks to linguistics and diffusionism. He conquers institutional positions that ensure the definitive recognition of ethnology. Exemplary figure of the committed intellectual, he fights for his humanistic convictions against the fascist and racist threats in the 1930’s. In 1941, he refuges in Colombia where he develops ethnological studies and helps to reassert the value of the Indian’s place in the nation.

Keywords

• History of Anthropology
• Ethnology
• Linguistics
• Physical Anthropology
• Material Culture