Front row left to right: Andre SchaefTner. Georges Henri Riviere. Marcel Gnaule. Michel Leiris. Oukhtomsky, Eric Lutten. Jean Moufle, Gaston-Louis Roux. This and all other images in the volume, unless otherwise mentioned: from a private collection All rights reserved.
Miroir de I'Afrique Jean Jamin ed. Paris: Gallimard, , p. Denis Hollier ed. In the Museum o f Man, p. In December , while the Mission j. The Eye o f the Ethnographer A young poet somewhat adrift in the bohemian tumult of post-World War ; I Paris, Michel Leiris was an unlikely participant in such an endeavor. The French original is Biffures Paris: Gallimard.
The French original is Michel Leiris. See the note to the entry j for 4 April Paris: La Pleiade, , pp. Chicago: University o f Chicago Press, , pp. II Leiris. Scratches, p. See Fibnlles Paris: Gallimard, This suffices to give this enterprise a great human significance in addition to its scientific interest.
As he wrote in one of the most famous passages of his autobiography Manhood: In the period of great license that followed the hostilities, jazz was a sign of allegiance, an orgiastic tribute to the colors of the moment.
It functioned magically, and its means of influence can be compared to a kind of possession. It was the element that gave these celebrations their true meaning, with communion by dance, latent or manifest exoticism, and drinks, the most effective means of bridging the gap that separates individuals from each other at any kind of gathering. In jazz, too, came the first appearance of Negroes, the manifestation and the myth of black Edens which were to lead me to Africa and, beyond Africa, to ethnography.
