The release of Martine Segalen’s book on the Musée des arts et traditions populaires (the Museum of the People’s Arts and Customs) comes at a significant time: the museum is to be closed in Spring 2005, its collections transferred to another institution in Marseille.
For Martine Segalen, a former director of the Centre for French Ethnology, this is a tragic loss and ‘the end of a great adventure’. Her book recounts the museum’s history from its beginnings to its establishment in a purpose built building in the Bois de Boulogne, when the importance of French ethnology finally seemed to be recognised and upheld alongside the other fields of ethnological studies.
Analysing the crisis that first hit the institution in the 1980s, and the difficulties that led to the museum’s imminent closure, Segalen’s book also offers an in-depth reflection on the political and cultural issues that determine the future of ethnology and museography in France.
Socio-anthropologist and professor at the University of Paris X Nanterre, Martine Segalen is the author of numerous works of sociology and ethnology.
Socio-anthropologue et professeur à l’université de Paris-X Nanterre, Martine Segalen est l’auteur de travaux réputés, notamment sur les évolutions de la famille. Elle a publié de nombreux ouvrages, dont Sociologie de la famille, Jeux de famille (dir.), Grands-Parents. La Famille à travers les générations (avec C. Attias-Donfut) et Le Nouvel Esprit de famille (avec C. Attias-Donfut et N. Lapierre), et a codirigé une Histoire de la famille. De 1986 à 1996, elle a dirigé le Centre d’ethnologie française, laboratoire du CNRS associé au musée des arts et traditions populaires.