Maurice Godelier

About the Author

Maurice Godelier is a renowned French anthropologist whose groundbreaking work has profoundly shaped the fields of economic anthropology and social theory. Born in 1934, he has dedicated his career to exploring the intricate relationships between culture, economy, and society, drawing on extensive fieldwork among indigenous peoples in Papua New Guinea. Godelier's innovative analyses challenge conventional Western assumptions about exchange, reciprocity, and the role of gifts in human societies, emphasizing the symbolic dimensions of material practices. His interdisciplinary approach, blending Marxism, structuralism, and ethnographic insight, has influenced generations of scholars. A professor emeritus at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Godelier continues to contribute to debates on kinship, religion, and the evolution of social structures, underscoring the universality of human sociality.