« Each person is our double, wearing a mask hiding this fraternity. Knowing about humanity is learning to know ourselves better. »
Térence
A worrying issue: the loss of little-known cultures
The major ethnic groups were systematically studied by anthropologists at an early date. On the other hand, smaller peoples comprising only a few villages were neglected. Mankind is thus bereft of information on the lifestyles, material culture, plant skills and the different ways that autochthonous peoples found to survive, while their religious beliefs are often fast disappearing.
Commitments
The Foundation’s objectives are strictly scientific and non-profit-making. It aims to support, at the international level, anthropological observation missions, publications and conferences entirely funded by the Foundation.
Deontology
Researchers’ contracts will contain a clause forbidding the acquisition of artifacts, or even the acceptance of gifts, in the villages where the Foundation funds their research.
Sharing data collected
Information collected will be made available to the cultural agencies of countries concerned.
Publications
The information, photographs and drawings collected will be published after each survey.
These small volumes make up a series.
The following books were copublished with Editions Hazan (Groupe Hachette): The Gan of Burkina Faso, Reconstitution of the History and Symbolics of a Little-known Kingdom, The Sacred, The Secret, On the Wan, the Mona and the Koyaka of Côte d’Ivoire, In North Sumatra, An Unknwon Group: The Kalasan Batak, The Anir Islands, Spirits, Masks and Performances in Southern New Ireland, The Songsarek Garo of Meghalaya, Tabiteuea Kiribati;
with Somogy éditions d’art: The Na of Lijiazui, The Jiye of South Sudan, The Altaians, A Turkic People from the Mountains of Siberia;
With Editions Ides & Calendes: The Yaure of Côte d’Ivoire, Make the Gods Dance, The Jamnyo of Jeju, the Women Divers of Korea and Neoconfucianism, a Dual Mythology, The Kuya of Côte d’Ivoire, A Forgotten People of the Forest, The Kararaô of Central Brazil.
Conferences
Researchers will each give about ten lectures over a period of approximately two years in the auditoriums of the world’s major museums and universities. These talks will be followed by a debate and the projection of photos or films taken by the researcher in the course of her or his travels.
Decisions taken jointly with the Scientific Committee
- Annual research program
- Selection of candidates for field surveys (doctoral students or well-known scholars)
- Supervision of the publication of work completed.