Alfred Metraux
Encyclopedia
Alfred Métraux was a Swiss anthropologist and human rights leader.
, Switzerland
, Metraux spent much of his childhood in Argentina
where his father was a well known surgeon resident in Mendoza
. His mother was a Georgia
n from Tbilisi. He received his secondary and university education in Europe, at the Classical Gymnasium of Lausanne, the Ecole Nationale des Chartes
in Paris, the Ecole Nationale des Langues Orientales (Diplome, 1925). The Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes
(Diplome, 1927) and the Sorbonne
(Docteur es Lettres, 1928). He also studied in Sweden, in Gothenburg’s Hogskola, and did research at the Göteborg Museum.
Among his teachers were Marcel Mauss
, Paul Rivet
, and Erland von Nordenskiold. While he was still a student he entered into correspondence with Father John Cooper who introduced him to the American school of cultural anthropology. It is said that Father Cooper did not realize at first that his scholarly correspondent was only 19 and 20 years old. They actually met much later, when Metraux came to the United States; but Father Cooper seems to have had considerable influence on Alfred Metraux’s thought. Metraux combined in his work the best of both the European and the American tradition of historical anthropology.
, and in 1936 –38, he was a Fellow of the Bishop Museum
in Honolulu. In 1939, he returned to Argentina and Bolivia
for field research on a Guggenheim Fellowship
. In 1940, upon his return to the United States from South America, he was in residence at Yale University
with a renewal of his Guggenheim Fellowship
. That next year, he worked with the Cross Cultural Survey (now the Human Relations Area Files
) on South American data and was associated with such people as John Dollard, Leonard Bloomfield
, and others of the Institute of Human Relations. In 1941, he joined the staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution. There, from 1941 to 1945, he played an important role in producing the monumental Handbook of South American Indians. Perhaps no other writer contributed as many pages to this work. As the editor, Julian Steward, acknowledges, “The extent of his (Metraux’s) contribution is by no means indicated by the large number of articles appearing under his name. With an unsurpassed knowledge of South American ethnology and ever generous of his time, his advice and help to the editor and contributors alike have been a major factor in the successful completion of the work.” (Vol. I, p.9). In addition, Metraux taught briefly at University of California, Berkeley (1938), the Escuela Nacional de Antropología, Mexico
(1943), the Colegio de Mexico (1943), and the Faculdad Latino-Americana de Ciencias Sociales, Santiago, Chile
(1959-60). At the time of his death, he was Professor of South American Anthropology at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris.
did research with him in Mexico, Argentina, and Haiti and was a well known anthropologist. More recently, he married Fernande Schulmann who accompanied him to Chile, Peru, and Brazil and who planned to work with him in Paraguay. He was survived also by his brother Guy Metraux (1919-2000) of Paris, his sister Vera Conne (1920--) of Lausanne, and by two sons: - Eric Metraux (1927-92) from his first marriage, and Daniel Alfred Metraux (1948-), the son of Rhoda Metraux.
, and finally, in 1950, he became a permanent member of UNESCO’s Department of Social Science. As an international civil servant, he served the world and his profession well. He took part in the Hylean Amazon project in 1947-1948, led the UNESCO Marbial Valley (Haiti) anthropological survey from 1948 to 1950 with personnel from the international Labor Office, and studied the internal migrations of the Aymara and Quechua Indians in Peru and Bolivia (1954). He edited the series of pamphlets on The Race Question and Modern Thought and The Race Question and Modern Science, published by UNESCO since 1950. He also organized the research that led to a series of volumes on race relations in Brazil, such as “As relações raciais entre negros a brancos em São Paulo,” edited by Roger Bastide and Florestan Fernandes (São Paulo, 1955), Race and Class in Rural Brazil, edited by Charles Wagley (UNESCO, Paris, 1952), and others. At UNESCO, he was responsible for the participation of anthropologists in many important projects around the world, and he consistently emphasized the anthropological point of view in all of the many programs with which he was associated. Anthropology lost not only a productive scholar, but an effective translator of anthropological theory and knowledge into action.
on the Brazilian Gê. He was a sensitive field worker with many years of experience, and his articles on the Argentine Chaco
and his book on Haitian Vodun indicate that he gathered careful and objective data in the field. He liked to think of himself as a field ethnologist. Any evening with him led to stories of nights around a fire with Argentine gauchos, his last stay with the semi-pacified Kayapo of Brazil
, his period of residence on Easter Island, a Haitian vodun ceremony, or a Candomblé
ceremony in Bahia which he had attended with his friend Pierre Verger.
'.
Alfred Métraux took his own life in a forest area near Paris on Good Friday, April 12, 1963.
Early life
Born in LausanneLausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Metraux spent much of his childhood in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
where his father was a well known surgeon resident in Mendoza
Mendoza, Argentina
Mendoza is the capital city of Mendoza Province, in Argentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, on the eastern side of the Andes. As of the , Mendoza's population was 110,993...
. His mother was a Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
n from Tbilisi. He received his secondary and university education in Europe, at the Classical Gymnasium of Lausanne, the Ecole Nationale des Chartes
École Nationale des Chartes
The École Nationale des Chartes is a grand établissement, an elite French university-level educational institution based in Paris. It provides education and training for archivists and librarians and forms part of the University of Paris.-History:...
in Paris, the Ecole Nationale des Langues Orientales (Diplome, 1925). The Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes
École pratique des hautes études
The École pratique des hautes études is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions....
(Diplome, 1927) and the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
(Docteur es Lettres, 1928). He also studied in Sweden, in Gothenburg’s Hogskola, and did research at the Göteborg Museum.
Among his teachers were Marcel Mauss
Marcel Mauss
Marcel Mauss was a French sociologist. The nephew of Émile Durkheim, Mauss' academic work traversed the boundaries between sociology and anthropology...
, Paul Rivet
Paul Rivet
Paul Rivet was a French ethnologist, who founded the Musée de l'Homme in 1937. He was also one of the founders of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, an antifascist organization created in the wake of the February 6, 1934 far right riots.Rivet proposed a theory according to...
, and Erland von Nordenskiold. While he was still a student he entered into correspondence with Father John Cooper who introduced him to the American school of cultural anthropology. It is said that Father Cooper did not realize at first that his scholarly correspondent was only 19 and 20 years old. They actually met much later, when Metraux came to the United States; but Father Cooper seems to have had considerable influence on Alfred Metraux’s thought. Metraux combined in his work the best of both the European and the American tradition of historical anthropology.
Early career
His professional career was equally cosmopolitan. He founded and was the first director (1928 – 1934) of the Institute of Ethnology at the University of Tucuman, Argentina. In 1934-35, he led a French expedition to Easter IslandEaster Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
, and in 1936 –38, he was a Fellow of the Bishop Museum
Bishop Museum
The Bishop Museum , is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu...
in Honolulu. In 1939, he returned to Argentina and Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
for field research on a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
. In 1940, upon his return to the United States from South America, he was in residence at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
with a renewal of his Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
. That next year, he worked with the Cross Cultural Survey (now the Human Relations Area Files
Human Relations Area Files
The Human Relations Area Files, Inc. , located in New Haven, Connecticut is a nonprofit international membership organization with over 300 member institutions in the U.S. and more than 20 other countries...
) on South American data and was associated with such people as John Dollard, Leonard Bloomfield
Leonard Bloomfield
Leonard Bloomfield was an American linguist who led the development of structural linguistics in the United States during the 1930s and the 1940s. His influential textbook Language, published in 1933, presented a comprehensive description of American structural linguistics...
, and others of the Institute of Human Relations. In 1941, he joined the staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution. There, from 1941 to 1945, he played an important role in producing the monumental Handbook of South American Indians. Perhaps no other writer contributed as many pages to this work. As the editor, Julian Steward, acknowledges, “The extent of his (Metraux’s) contribution is by no means indicated by the large number of articles appearing under his name. With an unsurpassed knowledge of South American ethnology and ever generous of his time, his advice and help to the editor and contributors alike have been a major factor in the successful completion of the work.” (Vol. I, p.9). In addition, Metraux taught briefly at University of California, Berkeley (1938), the Escuela Nacional de Antropología, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
(1943), the Colegio de Mexico (1943), and the Faculdad Latino-Americana de Ciencias Sociales, Santiago, Chile
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
(1959-60). At the time of his death, he was Professor of South American Anthropology at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris.
Married life
Metraux was married three times. Each of his wives was in a different way a scientific collaborator. His first wife, Eva Spiro Metraux, translated anthropological materials from English to French. His second wife, Rhoda Bubendey MetrauxRhoda Metraux
Dr. Rhoda Bubendey Metraux , was a prominent anthropologist in the area of cross-cultural studies, specializing in Haitian voodoo and the Iatmul of New Guinea. She collaborated with Alfred Metraux, on mutual studies of Voodoo in Haiti. During World War II, Dr...
did research with him in Mexico, Argentina, and Haiti and was a well known anthropologist. More recently, he married Fernande Schulmann who accompanied him to Chile, Peru, and Brazil and who planned to work with him in Paraguay. He was survived also by his brother Guy Metraux (1919-2000) of Paris, his sister Vera Conne (1920--) of Lausanne, and by two sons: - Eric Metraux (1927-92) from his first marriage, and Daniel Alfred Metraux (1948-), the son of Rhoda Metraux.
UNESCO
In the early spring of 1945, Métraux went to Europe as a member of the United States Bombing Survey and he saw the physical and moral desolation of Europe. Although he had by then become a citizen of the United States, this experience seems to have reaffirmed, in a way, his traditional ties with Europe. It also strengthened his belief in the necessity for European unity and for the need of a firm basis for international, inter-cultural, and inter-racial understanding. His early view of war devastated Europe was important in his decision in 1946 to take a post on the secretariat of the United Nations. Thus, from 1946 until 1962, he worked for his ideals of international and inter-cultural understanding within the framework of international organization with only occasional excursions into academic life and into anthropological field research. In 1946 and 1947, he was a member of the Department of Social Affairs of the United Nations, but in 1947 he was assigned to UNESCOUNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
, and finally, in 1950, he became a permanent member of UNESCO’s Department of Social Science. As an international civil servant, he served the world and his profession well. He took part in the Hylean Amazon project in 1947-1948, led the UNESCO Marbial Valley (Haiti) anthropological survey from 1948 to 1950 with personnel from the international Labor Office, and studied the internal migrations of the Aymara and Quechua Indians in Peru and Bolivia (1954). He edited the series of pamphlets on The Race Question and Modern Thought and The Race Question and Modern Science, published by UNESCO since 1950. He also organized the research that led to a series of volumes on race relations in Brazil, such as “As relações raciais entre negros a brancos em São Paulo,” edited by Roger Bastide and Florestan Fernandes (São Paulo, 1955), Race and Class in Rural Brazil, edited by Charles Wagley (UNESCO, Paris, 1952), and others. At UNESCO, he was responsible for the participation of anthropologists in many important projects around the world, and he consistently emphasized the anthropological point of view in all of the many programs with which he was associated. Anthropology lost not only a productive scholar, but an effective translator of anthropological theory and knowledge into action.
Ethnography
Métraux valued field ethnography more than theory. He let the facts speak for themselves, and many of his facts modified anthropological theory. Yet, one felt that he was too restless and too eager to be on his way to produce detailed and lengthy field reports such as those of Curt NimuendajúCurt Nimuendajú
Curt Unckel, better known as Curt Nimuendajú , was a German-Brazilian ethnologist, anthropologist and writer. His works are fundamental for understanding the religion and cosmology of many native Brazilian Indians, especially the Guarani people...
on the Brazilian Gê. He was a sensitive field worker with many years of experience, and his articles on the Argentine Chaco
Gran Chaco
The Gran Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semi-arid lowland region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, northern Argentina and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, where it is connected with the Pantanal region...
and his book on Haitian Vodun indicate that he gathered careful and objective data in the field. He liked to think of himself as a field ethnologist. Any evening with him led to stories of nights around a fire with Argentine gauchos, his last stay with the semi-pacified Kayapo of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, his period of residence on Easter Island, a Haitian vodun ceremony, or a Candomblé
Candomblé
Candomblé is an African-originated or Afro-Brazilian religion, practised chiefly in Brazil by the "povo de santo" . It originated in the cities of Salvador, the capital of Bahia and Cachoeira, at the time one of the main commercial crossroads for the distribution of products and slave trade to...
ceremony in Bahia which he had attended with his friend Pierre Verger.
Accomplishments
He published landmark studies of South American Indians including the Incas, Haitian voodoo and the ancient cultures of Easter Island. He participated in the framing of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and later as director of the Dept. of Social Sciences at [UNESCO], he presided over a series of studies which resulted in several publications demonstrating the absence of scientific foundation to theories of racial superiority. The 1951 UNESCO Statement on the Nature of Race and Race Differences enshrined these findings. A dedicated anthropologist and humanitarian, he brought the brilliance of South American Indian cultures to light, solved the mysteries of Easter Island, taught the world about Voodoo, and defined the United Nations' stand against racism. His books include Voodoo, The History of the Incas and Easter IslandEaster Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
'.
Alfred Métraux took his own life in a forest area near Paris on Good Friday, April 12, 1963.
External links
- Alfred Métraux Biography at the Minnesota State UniversityMinnesota State University, MankatoMinnesota State University, Mankato is a public four-year university located in Mankato, Minnesota, a community of 53,000 located southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul. As of Fall 2011, the student body is the third-largest in the state of Minnesota with over 15,000 students...