DUMONT, Louis Charles Jean. Thessaloniki (Osman Empire) 11.8.1911 — Paris 19.11.1998. French Sociologist and Indologist. Son of a railway engineer, lost early his father. After restless youth (he left school when 18 and tried various odd jobs) he studied ethnology under Mauss. The plans of a doctorate about Celtic survivals in French material culture were discontinued, when he participated in the WW II and was 1940-45 prisoner of war in Germany (and capable of studying Sanskrit under W. Schubring). From 1946 Assistant of the French National Museums. Field-work in South India in 1949-50 (Pramalai Kallar sub-caste on the coast of Tamilnadu), then in eastern Uttar Pradesh in 1954 and 1957-58. Ph.D. 1954 Paris. In 1951-55 Lecturer in Indian Sociology at Oxford, from 1955 directeur d’études at É.P.H.É. in Paris. Married Suzanne Tardieu, no children.
As a sociologist Dumont came from the school of Durkheim and Mauss (but also Max Weber and Evans-Pritchard) and as a structuralist emphasized the hierarchical structures in traditional society. Lardinois and Assayag see further also echoes of Guénon in his thought. The results of the North Indian field-work remained partly unpublished, when he turned to theoretical questions. He knew both Sanskrit and Tamil and always emphasized the importance of language studies to his students.
Publications: La Tarasque. Essai de description d’un fait local d’un point de vue ethnographique. 252 p. L’espèce humaine 8. P. 1951.
– “A Remarkable Feature of South Indian Pot-Making”, Man 52, 1952, 81-83; “The Dravidian Kinship Terminology as an Expression of Marriage”, Man 53, 1953, 34-39;“Définition structurale d’un dieu populaire tamoul”, JA 241, 1953, 255-270, again in 1964 book, English in Contributions to Indian Sociology 3, 1959; “The conception of kingship in ancient India”, Contr. to Indian Soc. 6, 1962, 48-67; further articles.
– Diss. Une sous-caste de l’Inde du sud. Organisation sociale et religion des Pramalai Kallar. 461 p. P. & the Hague 1957; English transl.: A South Indian subcaste. Social organization and religion of the Pramalai Kallar. Transl. by M. Moffatt, L. and A. Morton, revised by the author and A. Stern. 524 p. Delhi 1986.
– Diss. II. Hiérarchie et alliance. Notes comparatives sur la parenté dans l’Inde du Sud. 72 p. 10 fig. Paris n.d.; Hierarchy and Marriage. Alliance in South Indian Kinship. 45 p. Royal Anthrop. Soc. Occasional Papers 12. L. L. 1957.
– La civilisation indienne et nous. Esquisse de sociologie comparée. 113 p. P. 1964.
– Ed. with D. F. Pocock: Contributions to Indian Sociology. 1-9. the Hague 1957-66.
– Homo hierarchicus. Essai sur le système des castes. 447 p. P. 1967, English tr. Homo hierarchicus. The Caste System and its Implications. 386 p. L. & Chicago 1970, German Munich 1976.
– Religion/Politics and History in India. Collected Papers in Indian Sociology. 10+166 p. P. & the Hague 1970.
– Dravidien et Kariera. L’alliance de mariage dans l’Inde du Sud, et en Australie. 148 p. Textes de Sciences Sociales 14. the Hague & P. 1975; Affinity as a value. Marriage alliance in South India, with comparative essays on Australia. 240 p. Chicago 1983.
– Essais sur l’individualisme. Une perspective anthropologique sur l’idéologie moderne. 272 p. P. 1983.
– Homo aequalis. Genèse et épanuissement de l’idéologie économique. 1-2. P. 1977, English transl.: From Mandeville to Marx. The genesis and triumph of economic ideology. Chicago 1977; other works.
Sources: N.J. Allen, JASO 19, 1998, 1-4; *J. Bronkhorst, “L.D. et les renonçants indiens”, Or. Suec. 45-46, 1996-97, 9-12; M. Gaborieau, *JA 287, 1999, 1-3 and D.O.L.F. 331f.; *J.-C. Galey (ed.), Différences, valeurs, hiérarchie. Textes offerts à L. D. P. 1984; *R. Lardinois, “L-D- et la science indigène”, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociale 106-107, 1995, 11-26; *R. Lardinois, “Genesis of L.D.’s Anthropology”, J. Assayag & R. Lardinois & D. Vidal: Orientalism and Anthropology. From Max Müller to Louis Dumont. Pondy Papers in Social Sciences 24. Pondichéry 1997, 2nd impr. 2001, 31-59 & J. Assayag, “Indianism and the comparative theory of L.D.”, Ibid. 61-87; *T.N. Madan (ed.), Way of Life: King, Householder, Renouncer. Essays in Honour of L.D. Delhi 1982; *T.N. Madan, “L.D. and the Study of Society in India”, in his Pathways. Approaches to the Study of Society in India. N.D. 1994, 51-84; M.-L. Reiniche, “L. D. et la notion de hiérarchie”, BEI 15, 1997, 20-27; *Contributions to Indian Sociology 1999, 475-501 with full bibliography; French Wikipédia (English version rather briefly, both with photos).
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