There's a "Mauss mystery:" the question is to understand how Mauss-the tiny Jew of Épinal, Mauss-the Philosophy professor who didn't study at the École Normale, Mauss-the nephew always in the shade of his uncle, Émile Durkheim, Mauss-the intellectual and the militant, became the "father of modern anthropology," contributing in a distinct way to the development of the human sciences. After the publication of the first biography of Marcel Mauss (Paris, Fayard), the publication of his Political writings (Écrits politiques, Paris, Fayard), and the publication of his correspondence with Durkheim (Paris, PUF), I propose a reflexion on two aspects: 1) the situation of biography in the social sciences; and 2) the difficulties of writing a biography of Marcel Mauss (1872-1950). The question raised by the biographer in the beginning of his researches, "Failure or Success of a Life?" turns, in the end of the paper, into another question: "Failure or Success of a Biography?"
Marcel Mauss; Biography; Methodology