Books

In this book, Gérard Toffin, director of research at the CNRS and a specialist in Himalayan ethnology, gives an account of the evolution of his discipline, the result of an interest born either of condescension or fascination, depending on the historical period, in the ways of others. The book begins with an explanation of the beginnings of European awareness of the “otherness” of distant civilizations that took place when the New World was discovered. It was further fueled by accounts of later voyages, which were rich in exotic descriptions and mostly cursory and inaccurate descriptions of peoples encountered. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the first scientific expeditions to these places began to employ reliable methodology, leading to better understanding of their peoples. The book closes with a discussion of the emergence of ethnology as a social science with its own tools and procedures.