Georges Louis Condominas (29 June 1921, Haiphong – 17 July 2011, Paris) was a renowned cultural anthropologist and musicologist.
A specialist of South East Asia (his mother had Chinese, Vietnamese and Portuguese roots, his father being a French Navy officer), he has been labeled as the ‘Proust of ethnology’. His field studies of the Mnong people of Vietnam have inspired Francis Ford Coppola for his masterpiece, Apocalypse Now, in particular the final scene of the buffalo sacrifice.
A disciple of noted French ethnologists such as André Leroi-Gourhan, Denise Paulme, Marcel Griaule and Maurice Leenhardt, he started field studies in the village of Sar Luk (Đăk Lăk Province, Vietnam), developing a novel approach to Southeast Asian societies that he was to apply in Madagascar, Togo, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, and Cambodia during several UNESCO missions. A close friend of stellar ethnologists such as Margaret Mead, John Embree and Elisabeth Wiswell Embree, he was a Visiting Professor at Columbia University and Yale University (1963−1969), not shying away from giving a strong anti-war speech at the annual session of the American Anthropological Association in 1972.
Condominas’ working papers, his personal library and his pictures are preserved at the mediatheque of the Musée du Quai Branly, available for scholars and researchers. His audio records are preserved and digitized by the French Research Center for Ethnomusicology (LESC, CNRS, Paris Ouest University).
Selected Publications
- Nous avons mangé la forêt de la Pierre-Génie Gôo (Hii saa Brii Mau-Yaang Gôo). Chronique de Sar Luk, village mnong gar (tribu proto-indochinoise des Hauts-Plateaux du Viet-nam central), Paris, Mercure de France, 1954 (2nd ed. 1974, 3d ed. 2003; paperback ed. Flammarion, 1982 | ENG tr. We Have Eaten the Forest: The story of a Montagnard village in the central highlands of Vietnam, New York, Hill and Wang. ASIN B000QYHP12.| Transl. Italian, Milan, 1960; Russian, Moscow, 1968; German, Frankfurt, 1969; English-Japanese, Tokyo, 1993; Vietnamese, Hanoi, 2003.
- L’Exotique est quotidien: Sar Luk, Vietnam central, Paris, Plon, 1965 (Collection Terre humaine) (2nd edition 1977; transl. Spanish with preface by Manuel Delgado, Barcelona, 1992.
- Fokon’olona et collectivités rurales en Imérina, preface by Hubert Deschamps, Paris, Berger-Levrault, ‘L’Homme d’Outré Mer’ series n 4, 1961, 234 p. [Madagascar]
- [co-ed. with J. Barrau, L. Bernot & I. Chiva] Agriculture et sociétés en Asie du Sud-Est, Etudes rurales 53 – 56, Jan.-Dec. 1974.
- L’Anthropologie en France: situation actuelle et avenir, Acts of the international colloquium organized at CNRS by G. Condominas and S. Dreyfus-Ganielon, 18 – 22 April 1977, Paris, CNRS, 1979.
- L’Espace social. A propos de l’Asie du Sud-Est, Paris, Flammarion, 1980, 544 p. |VN tr. Hanoi, 1997). | TH tr. by Chatchada Ratanasamakarn and Sumitra Baffie, Bangkok, Cahiers de France, 1991.
- “Propos sur la complexité des problèmes de l’Asie du Sud-Est”, Herodote 21, Apr.-June 1981: 14 – 30. [Conversation with geographer Yves Lacoste].
- [ed. with Christophe Pottier] Les réfugiés originaires de l’Asie du Sud-Est. Rapport au Président de la République, Paris : La documentation française, 2 vol. 1982 – 1984 (CeDRASEMI collective report).
- “From Lawa to Mon, from Saa’ to Thai: historical and anthropological aspects of Southeast Asian social spaces,” tr. by Stephanie Anderson, Maria Magannon and Gehan Wijeyewardene, Canberra, Department of Anthropology, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1990.
- [co-ed. with D. Bernot, M.-A. Martin & M. Zaini-Lajoubert], Disciplines croisées: hommage à Bernard Philippe Groslier, Paris EHESS, 1992.
- [with William Dessaint & Avòunado Ngwâma] Au sud des nuages, mythes et contes recueillis oralement chez les montagnards lissou (tibéto-birmans), Paris, Gallimard, 1994, 614 p.
- [co-ed with M.-A. Martin & J. Ivanof] Formes extrêmes de dépendance: contributions à l’étude de l’esclavage en Asie du Sud- Est, Paris, EHESS, 1998.
- Le Bouddhisme au village. Avec des notes ethnographiques sur les pratiques religieuses dans la société rurale lao (plaine de Vientiane), Vientiane, Cahiers de France, 1998 | Laotian tr. by Saveng Phinith.
Filmography
- Sar Luk: les travaux et les jours d’un village mnong gar du Vietnam central, film directed by Georges Condominas and Alain Bedos based on photos, sung poems collected between 1948 and 1950, and music recorded in 1958 and 1984 | Sar Luk: toils and days of a Mnong Gar village in Central Vietnam, synopsis transl. into English by Maria Pilar Luna-Magannon, film, CNRS-CeDRASEMI, 1984, 14 p.
- L’Exotique est quotidien: retour à Sar Luk, directed by Jean Lallier, 16:9 digital telefilm, 16:9 satellite broadcast by France Télévision, VHS videocassette, 52 min., Paris, ADAV / Europe images, Les Films d’ici, Paris, 1996, broadcast by France 2, 1997.
- Nous avons mangé la forêt..., film directed by par Georges Condominas and Jean Lallier, VHS videocassette, 80 min., Le Vidéographe, Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail / Les Films d’ici co-production, 1999.
- Le Sacrifice du buffle, film directed by Georges Condominas and Jean Lallier, VHS videocassette, 50 min., Le Vidéographe, Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail / Les Films d’ici co-production, 1999.
Discography
- Musique mnong gar du Vietnam (anthologie de musique proto-indochinoise, vol. 1), Paris, OCORA, 1974, 30 cm LP, text by G. Condominas, 10 p. in French and English, notes and bibliog., 12 black-and-white photos, 1 color photo, 1 map (Musée de l’Homme collection, OCORA OCR 80/ ORTF).
- Vietnam: musique des montagnards, le Chant du Monde, CNR 2741085.86, 1997 (Collections of the CNRS and the Musée de l’Homme) [CDI, Jörai (1), Lac (14, 15, 16); CDII, Khmu, 1973 (19, 20, 21)].
