Françoise Héritier | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1933-11-15)15 November 1933 Veauche, Loire, France |
| Died | 15 November 2017(2017-11-15) (aged 84) Paris, France |
| Philosophical work | |
| Region | Anthropology, ethnology |
| Notable ideas | The differential valence of the sexes |
Françoise Héritier (15 November 1933 – 15 November 2017) was a Frenchanthropologist, ethnologist, and feminist. She was the successor toClaude Lévi-Strauss to hold the chair of anthropology at theCollège de France, and held the inaugural chair of Comparative Study of African Societies from 1983. Her work dealt mainly with thetheory of alliances and on theprohibition of incest, both theories based on the notion of exchange of women. In addition to Lévi-Strauss, she was also influenced byAlfred Radcliffe-Brown.
Françoise Héritier was born on 15 November 1933 atVeauche, a commune in theLoire department in central France.[1] She grew up in a social background that she described as a "small and reasonable bourgeoisie that came out of the peasantry". She studied inParis at theLycée Racine, and later in thehypokhâgne at theLycée Fénelon, Paris.[2]
She studied history, geography, and thenethnology at theSorbonne University and at theMusée de l'Homme.[3] She said that, a seminar given byClaude Lévi-Strauss at the Sorbonne University, in which he talked about the "joking relationship inFiji", sparked her decision to studyethnology.[2]
In 1957, Héritier went on a mission inFrench Upper Volta (nowBurkina Faso) with the anthropologistMichel Izard, whom she would later marry,[2] with theSamo people. She became a specialist in African ethnology, and joined theFrench National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in 1967.[3]
Like Claude Lévi-Strauss and his successorPhilippe Descola,[2] Françoise Héritier was first a study director at theSchool for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) from 1980. Her field of social research focused in particular onmale dominance,kinship systems, and theincest taboo.[3]
In 1982 she was appointed Chair of Anthropology at theCollège de France, as the successor to Lévi-Strauss.[2] She was only the second woman to hold this position, the first beingJacqueline de Romilly. She held the inaugural chair of Comparative Study of African Societies from 1983.[3]
From 1998 to 2001, she was a member of the CNRS ethics committee.[4]
Héritier was part of thestructuralism movement. She is well known for her works in the theory of alliances and the prohibition of incest based on the notion of the circulation of women in the society. She brings the concepts of the "identical" and its "repulsive frustration", in the continuity of the approaches of Lévi-Strauss andAlfred Radcliffe-Brown. In her conception of the societies, she especially focuses on the concepts of "nature" and "environment".
In her bookMasculin/Féminin,[5] she noted that the distinction between the feminine and the masculine is universal and that exists everywhere; and that the male is always considered superior to the women. However, she showed in her book,Masculin/Féminin I et II, De la Violence, through numerous examples, the hierarchical thinking regarding men and women is a cultural construct—and therefore to be revisited. She called this concept "the differential valence of the sexes" (la valence différentielle des sexes) that she preferred to the concept of the masculine domination[6] used byPierre Bourdieu orMaurice Godelier.
In February 2005 Héritier addressed an international conference organised by several women's rights organisations and held in Paris, entitled "United against Fundamentalism and for Equality".[7]
In 2011 she discussed her path to feminism with historianMichelle Perrot, philosopherSylviane Agacinski, and political scientistNicole Bacharan. She said:[8]
I came to have feminist beliefs in my work as an anthropologist in the face of universal ethnological facts that deserved explanation. I realised that there was a dominant archaic model, based on a differential valence of the sexes, which gradually led to male dominance. My feminism is based on conviction and reason (so it is also a humanism) and not just about indignation. Moreover, I observed inexplicable situations from childhood: thus, inLivrad farms, the mistress of the house did not sit at the table and ate what remained...
It's objectively harder to be a woman than to be a man because men have become used to being used.The Most Beautiful History of Women shows that women internalise their state of dependence but also that they have always found men and women to think and fight.
In 1978 she was awarded the CNRS silver medal, for her on the functioning of semi-complex systems of kinship and alliance.[3]
On 8 November 2017 Héritier was awarded aPrix Femina spécial for her whole body of work.[9][10][11]
Héritier married anthropologistMichel Izard.[2]
Héritier died on her 84th birthday, 15 November 2017,[1] in thePitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris.[citation needed]
