Arnold van Gennep

About

Arnold van Gennep (1873-1957) was a French ethnologist and folklorist, naturalized in 1897. A polyglot, he studied at the Sorbonne and the School of Oriental Languages. His major work, The Rites of Passage (1909), established a universal tripartite structure of rites, influencing Victor Turner and Joseph Campbell. Author of the monumental Manual of Contemporary French Folklore (1937-1958), he is considered the founder of ethnography of the French domain. Marginalized by the Durkheimian school, he wrote a folklore column for the Mercure de France from 1905 to 1949.

* 1873-04-23 — † 1957-05-07

Sources: britannica.com · berose.fr