Louis Molet
Louis Molet (18 December 1915 – 12 July 1992) was a French anthropologist and missionary. He is known for his research primarily in Madagascar and with the Malagasy peoples.
Early life[edit]
Louis Molet was born on 18 December 1915, in Paris.[1] He studied Protestant theology, graduating in 1941, and then went to Madagascar as a missionary until 1949.[2] While in Madagascar, he studied Malagasy and earned a certificate in the language in 1945.[1] Molet also studied law and foreign customs.[2]
Career[edit]
In 1950, Molet started as a researcher in Antananarivo at the Institute for Scientific Research of Madagascar.[1] He then became the head of the humanities department at the institute from 1954 to 1958.[1] Molet's publications on Madagascar reference a variety of Madagascan ethnic groups, including the Tsimihety, Antankarana, Betsimisaraka, Makoa, and Mahafaly peoples.[1] He conducted research in the Central African Republic and French Polynesia, then taught at the University of Montreal as an associate professor of anthropology and head of African studies.[1]
Molet spent two years as rector of the University of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[1] He then returned to Paris in 1970 and served as the research director of Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique Outre-mer.[2] In 1976, Molet was elected a corresponding member of the fifth section of the Académie des sciences d'outre-mer.
He died on 12 July 1992 in Saint-Léger-sur-Dheune.[1]
Bibliography[edit]
- Molet, Louis (1953). Habitations Betsimisaraka de Lakato (district de Moramanga). Le naturalist malgache 5: 229-244.
- Molet, Louis (1955). Le bain royal à Madagascar : explication de la fête malgache du Fandroana par la coutume disparue de la manducation des morts. Université de Paris, Faculté de Lettres.
- Molet, Louis (1959). L'expansion tsismihety. Modalités et motivations des migrations d'un groupe ethnique du nord de Madagascar. Mémoires de l'Institut Scientifique de Madagascar.
- Molet, Louis (1979). La Conception malgache du monde, du surnaturel et de l'homme en Imerina. Paris: Editions l'Harmattan. ISBN 2858020892.