Jacques Jérôme Pierre Maquet

Jacques Jérôme Pierre Maquet

Jacques Jérôme Pierre Maquet, 93, passed away on January 18, 2013 from pneumonia at the Nazareth House in Los Angeles, California. Born in Brussels, Belgium, on August 4, 1919, this eminent professor of anthropology completed his Diploma in Humanities (Graeco-Latin) in 1937 and later received a PhD (1948) and JD (1949) and PhD (U Louvain). While at Louvain, Maquet attended Harvard U (1946–48) to study sociology and anthropology under Pitirim A Sorokin, Clyde Kluckhohn and Talcott Parsons. From 1948–52 Maquet attended the U London and studied social anthropology, with an African specialization, under Cyril Daryll Forde of the anthropology department. Maquet received his PhD in social anthropology (U London, 1952) and DLitt in social sciences (U Paris/La Sorbonne, 1973).

Maquet was director of the Rwanda-Burundi Center at the Institute for Scientific Research in Central Africa (IRSAC) in Butare, Rwanda (1952–57); professor of anthropology at State U Congo, Lubumbashi (Elisabethville), Zaire (1957–60); director of studies, economics and social sciences at U Paris (1961–68); professor of anthropology at Case Western Reserve U in Cleveland, Ohio (1968–70); and professor of anthropology at UC Los Angeles (1970–90), serving as chair of the department from 1978 to1983. He retired in 1990 as professor emeritus.

Maquet was editor of Jeune Afrique (1958–60); Other Realities (1979–85); Linguistic Anthropology (1980); and On Symbols in Anthropology (1982). He authored The Sociology of Knowledge (1951, 1973); Aide-memoire d’ethnologie africaine (1954); Ruanda: essai photographique sur une societe africaine en transition (1957); The Premise of Inequality in Ruanda: A Study of Political Relations in a Central African Kingdom (1961); Afrique, les civilisations noires (1962); Power and Society in Africa (1971); Civilizations of Black Africa (1972); Africanity: The Cultural Unity of Black Africa (1972); Introduction to Aesthetic Anthropology (1979); The Aesthetic Experience: An Anthropologist Looks at the Visual Arts (1986).

In terms of ethnographic film, Maquet co-produced with Luc de Heusch a seminal work on political and social structure in Rwanda. Maquet conducted research on politics, economics society and arts in Central Africa (1940s through 1960s); and in Southern Asia (1970s through 1980s), especially on Buddhism, aesthetics and meditation practices in Sri Lanka. This initiated further studies and teaching on the anthropology of intentional communities.

In February 2005, Maquet was honored with a commemorative award presented by the UCLA African Studies Center in recognition of his lifetime of research, teaching, publication and service in African Studies. Maquet is survived by his wife Gisèle, former wife Emma, two sons Bernard and Denis, and his grandchildren. He has the gratitude of his many students who hold him in the highest esteem. (David Blundell and Barbara Mathieu)

via Anthropology-News http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2013/03/18/jacques-jerome-pierre-maquet/