Françoise Héritier was born onNovember15 1933, in Veauche, Loire. Anthropologist, ethnologist and feminist activist, she is the second woman, after Jacqueline de Romilly, to be admitted as a professor at the Collège de France. Growing up in Auvergne, where her grandparents were farmers, she developed a taste for the language of the land, manual techniques and a keen sense of differences in behavior and status.
She discovered ethnology by chance, taking Claude Lévi-Strauss's lecture at the Religious Studies Department of the École Pratique des Hautes Études. In 1957, on the recommendation of Claude Lévi-Strauss, Françoise Héritier was hired by the federal government of French West Africa to carry out a survey in Upper Volta, followed by other missions. In all, almost five years of fieldwork among the Samo, Pana, Mossi, Bobo and Dogon populations. From 1961 to 1966, she headed the Centre d'analyse documentaire pour l'Afrique noire. In 1967, she joined the CNRS, working with Claude Lévi-Strauss in the Social Anthropology Laboratory at the Collège de France. She became director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in 1980.
In 1982, Françoise Héritier joined the Collège de France, where she succeeded Claude Lévi-Strauss in inaugurating the chair, Étude comparée des sociétés africaines, which she held until 1998.
Her work has earned her numerous distinctions, including the CNRS Silver Medal (1978), the Irène-Joliot-Curie Prize (2001), Officer of the Légion d'Honneur, Grand-Croix du Mérite and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.
His many books and publications include Aspects humains de l'aménagement hydro-agricole de la vallée du Sourou (1958) ; L'exercice de la parenté (1981) ; Les deux sœurs et leur mère (1994) ; De l'inceste (1994) ; De la violence (1996), Masculin/Féminin, tome 1, " La pensée de la différence " (1996) and tome 2" Dissoudre la hiérarchie " (2002) ;Une pensée en mouvement (2009) ; Le sel de la vie (2012) ; Au gré des jours (2017).
Françoise Héritier died onNovember15 2017, in Paris.
From the eulogy delivered by Pr Philippe Descola on the occasion of Françoise Héritier's passing.