Arnold van Gennep: Difference between revisions

'''Arnold van Gennep''', in full name '''Charles-Arnold Kurr van Gennep''' (23 April 1873 – 7 May 1957), was a noted [[Dutch people|Dutch]]-–[[German people|German]]-[[French people|French]] [[Ethnography|ethnographer]] and [[Folkloristics|folklorist]].

== Biography ==

He was born in [[Ludwigsburg]], in the then-independent [[Kingdom of Württemberg]] (since 1871, part of the [[German Empire]]). Since his parents were never married, Van Gennep adopted his [[Dutch people|Dutch]] mother's [[maiden name|name]], "''[[Vanvan (Dutch)|van]] [[Gennep]]"''. When he was six, he and his mother moved away to [[Lyons]], [[France]], where she married a French doctor, who again moved the family to [[Savoy]].

Van Gennep is best known for his work regarding [[Riterite of passage|rites of passage]] ceremonies and his significant works in modern French folklore. He is recognizedrecognised as the founder of [[folklore]] studies in [[France]].

He went to [[Paris]] to study at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]]. However, buthe was disappointed that the school did not offer the subjects he wanted., and Soso he enrolled at the [[École des langues orientales]] to study [[Arabic language|Arabic]] and at the [[École pratique des hautes études]] for philology, general linguistics, Egyptology, Ancient Arabic, primitive religions, and Islamic culture. ThisThat 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 Neuchâtel]] in [[Switzerland]] but was expelled for expressing doubts about the neutrality of Switzerland during [[World War I]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}} There he reorganized the museum and organized the first ethnographicalethnographic conference (1914). In 1922, he toured the United States.

His most famousbest-known 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,préliminaire'' or "preliminary", ''liminaire'' (''or "[[liminality]]'')" (a stage much studied by the anthropologist [[Victor Turner]]), and ''postliminaire'' (''or "post-liminality'')".

His major work in French folklore was ''Le Manuel de folklore français contemporain'' (1937-1958Handbook of Contemporary French Folklore, 1937–1958).

He died in 1957 atin [[Bourg-la-Reine]], [[France]].

* ''The Rites of Passage'' was highly influential in the structuring of [[Joseph Campbell]]'s 1949 text, ''[[The Hero with a Thousand Faces]]'', as Campbell divides the journey of the hero into three parts, ''Departure'', ''Initiation,'', and ''Return''.

* ''[http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/12045100/ Le Tissage aux Cartons et son utilisation décorative dans l'Egypte Ancienne]'', Neuchatel, Switzerland: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1916, co-author Gustave Jeqier. English translation ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20100828085320/http://www.barbara-shapiro.com/book/le-tissage-book-order.html Cardweaving in Ancient Egypt]'' Barbara Shapiro, transl. San Francisco :, 2010.

* ''[httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=kJpkBH7mB7oC&printsec=frontcover&dqq=rites+of+passage&lr=&num=50&as_brr=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false The Rites of Passage]'', 1909. [[University of Chicago Press]], 1960. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060918002238/http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/2449.ctl ''web page'']

* [https://archive.today/20130416010355/http://unjobs.org/authors/arnold-van-gennep Arnold van Gennep at unjobs.org]

* Belmont, Nicole, ''Arnold van Gennep: The Creator of French Ethnography'' Derek Coltman trans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979

[[Category:People from SavoySavoie]]

[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Neuchâtel faculty]]