Charles Jean Marie Letourneau (23 September 1831,Auray[1] – 21 February 1902,6th arrondissement of Paris[2]) was a 19th-century Frenchanthropologist.
In 1865 he joined theSociety of Anthropology of Paris[3] of which he was general secretary from 1887 until his death. He thus succeededPaul Broca who served in this position until 1880.[3]
Friedrich Engels cites Letourneau's work, particularlyL'évolution du mariage et de la famille (1888), in later editions ofThe Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Engels asserts that an early stage of human society featured "complete promiscuity in sexual intercourse", contrary to the beliefs of most anthropologists of the era. He quotes Letourneau: "Among mammals there is no strict relation between the degree of intellectual development and the form of sexual life".[4]
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