The Barefoot Anthropologist

French anthropologist Jacques Dournes lived in Vietnam for 25 years, from 1946 to 1970, studying the culture of the Jarai and other highland ethnic groups. He became a renowned ethnographer and the Jarai people became his lifelong passion.

In part 1 of this study, Andrew Hardy explores Dournes’s challenging monograph Potao, une théorie de pouvoir chez les Indochinois jorai and his views on the role of the highlanders in ancient Champa. In part 2, Dournes speaks animatedly with the author about the Jarai, his feelings about culture and economics, his understanding of Vietnam’s history, and his personal experience of living in the Central Highlands. The French transcript of the interview is presented in the appendix.

Andrew Hardy works at the Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient (EFEO), specializing in the history of Vietnam. He is the author of Red Hills: Migrants and the State in the Highlands of Vietnam.

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1

Jacques Dournes, Highland Champa, and the Potao: Reading Potao, une theorie du pouvoir chez les Indochinois jorai

Part 2

The Vietnamese and Highlanders in the Twentieth Century: Interview with Jacques Dournes

Afterword

Barefoot in the Mud: Reflections on Jacques Dournes

Oscar Salemink

Appendix

French Transcript of the Interview with Jacques Dournes

Works of Jacques Dournes

Bibliography

Index