Death of Roberte Hamayon, founder of modern Mongolian studies in France

One of the first fruits of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and Mongolia in 1965 was the signing of a Cultural Cooperation Agreement between the two countries in April 1967. An essential provision of this agreement was the urgent creation of Mongolian language teaching at Enlov (Ecole nationale des langues orientales vivantes). Roberte Hamayon (associated with Françoise Aubin, then in charge of teaching civilization and history) was chosen as the first teacher.

This was an obvious choice: Roberte Hamayon, already an anthropologist at the CNRS and EPHE, had carried out a mission in Mongolia in the spring of 1967, during which, in addition to her own fieldwork, she had been able to establish rich contacts with her Mongolian colleagues (which she renewed and extended in 1968 during a fruitful mission among the Siberian Buryats). The launch of their courses, at the start of the 1967-1968 academic year, was a resounding success.

From then on, from the end of 1967 to 1973, she combined her considerable pioneering work teaching Mongolian at Inalco with the pursuit of her anthropological research, largely centered on the study of Mongolian and Siberian shamanism (a major product of which was her monumental Chasse à l'Âme, 1990), but also associated and expanded with a remarkable diversity of interests and depth of methodological and theoretical reflection. It was from this dual perspective that she initiated, as early as 1969-1970, the creation of the Centre d'Études Mongoles et Sibériennes and the launch of the journal Études Mongoles et Sibériennes, and that she played an essential part in the training of a remarkable generation of young researchers who acknowledge their debt to her. Winner of a CNRS silver medal (2006) and author of Jouer. Étude anthropologique à partir d'exemples sibériens (2012), Roberte Hamayon has made major contributions to anthropology, far beyond the Mongolian and Siberian domains.

Younger people too will have witnessed her boundless generosity, through the lectures she has given at Inalco again in recent years.

With this message, we wish today to pay tribute to her. We join in the grief of her loved ones and all those who knew her.