Senior researcher at the CNRS
 Contact:
UPR 299 Centre d'Etudes Himalayennes, CNRS
7 rue Guy Môquet
94800 Villejuif CEDEX
France
E-mail: gtoffin@vjf.cnrs.fr
Gérard Toffin, anthropologist, has mainly worked on rural and urban Newar communities from the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. He has also carried out research in the Nepalese hills among the Tamangs in Ganesh Himal and among the Indo-Nepalese caste in the districts of Gulmi and Argha Kanchi.
He is interested in material culture, in social organisation and in the religions of Himalayan populations. He is at present carrying out research in anthropology of space, especially in Asian towns, as well as on various issues regarding religions in India and the Himalayas. Furthermore, he considers the socio-economic changes in Nepal as a whole from an anthropoligical perspective. He has worked in Nepal in interdisciplinary teams of agronomists, architects and ecologists. Several years ago he also started researching about writings of ethnography and anthropology and the history of anthropological knowledge. This research is still underway. Since 2005, the focus of his work has been Indian and Nepalese Hindu sects and Asian theatre.
He ran a collection: "Les Chemins de l'ethnologie", published by the CNRS (Editions du CNRS) and by the Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris. He is member of the Scientific Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of the CNRS's Centres Asie.
Key words: ethno-ecology, society and religion, history of anthropology, Hindu sect, anthropology of theatre, Newar, Tamang
Fieldwork: Nepal, the Kathmandu Valley, Ganesh Himal range, North Bengal, Sikkim, Gujarat
Main publications:
2011, "The Propagation of a Hindu Sect in India and Nepal. The Krishna Pranâmî Sampradây", South Asia. Journal of South Asian Studies, vol. 34, n°1, pp. 1-30.
2011, The Politics of Belonging in the Himalayas. Local Attachments and Boundary Dynamics. Edited by Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka and Gérard Toffin, Delhi, Sage Publications
2010, "How to Combine Citizenship and Diversity? France, India and Nepal", European Bulletin of Himalayan Research , 37, pp. 27-55.
2010, La fête-spectacle. Théâtre et rite au Népal. Paris, Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme.
2009, "Fields and Writings. Fifty Years of French Anthropology in Nepal" , Studies in Nepali History and Society, vol.14, n° 2 , pp. 261-301.
2009, The Janajati/Adivasi Movement in Nepal: Myths and Realities of Indigeneity, Sociological Bulletin, 58 (1), pp. 25-42.
2007, Newar Society. City, Village and Periphery. Lalitpur, Social Science Baha/Himal Books [2nd edition, revised and enlarged with an Afterword, 2008].
2005, Ethnologie. La quête de l'Autre. Paris, 2005, Éditions Acropole.
2002, Entre hindouisme et bouddhisme : la religion néwar, Népal. Université catholique de Louvain, Institut Orientaliste, Louvain-la-Neuve, Peeters.
1996, Les Tambours de Katmandou. Paris, 1996, Payot.
1993, Nepal : Past & Present. Proceedings of the Franco-German Conference, Arc-et-Senans, June 1990. Edited by Gérard Toffin, Paris, CNRS Éditions. Édition indienne : Sterling Publishers, Delhi , 1993.
1993, The Anthropology of Nepal. From Tradition to Modernity. Proceedings of the Franco-Nepalese Conference, Kathmandu, March 1992, Edited by Gérard Toffin, Kathmandu, Centre Culturel français.
1993, (réedition 2005) Le Palais et le temple. La fonction royale dans l'ancienne vallée du Népal. Paris, CNRS Editions.
1992, Classer les dieux ? Des panthéons en Asie du Sud. Etudes réunies par Véronique Bouillier et Gérard Toffin, Paris, Éditions de l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales, (Coll. "Purushârtha", 15).
1989, Prêtrise, pouvoirs et autorité en Himalaya . Etudes réunies par Véronique Bouillier et Gérard Toffin , Paris, Éditions de l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Coll. "Purushârtha", 12)
1987, De la voûte céleste au terroir, du jardin au foyer. Mosaïques sociographiques (Hommage Lucien Bernot). Paris, Éditions de l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales (en collaboration avec Bernard Koechlin, François Sigaut et Jacqueline M.C. Thomas)
1987, Architecture, milieu et société en Himalaya ("Études himalayennes" n°1). Études réunies par Denis Blamont et Gérard Toffin, Paris, Éditions du CNRS.
1987, Paysages et divinités en Himalaya. Direction : G. Toffin. Numéro spécial de la revue Études rurales , n°107-108.
1984, Société et religion chez les Néwar du Népal. Paris, Éd. du CNRS.
1981, L ' Homme et la maison en Himalaya. Ecologie du Népal. Textes réunis et présentés par Gérard Toffin, Paris, 1981, Éditions du CNRS. Edition anglaise Man and his house in the Himalayas. Edited by G. Toffin, Delhi , Sterling Publishers, 1991.
1981, Panauti, une ville au Népal. Paris, 1981, Berger-Levrault (Coll. « Architectures »), en collaboration avec Vincent Barré, Patrick Berger et Laurence Feveile.
1977, Pyangaon, une communauté newar de la vallée de Kathmandou : la vie matérielle. Paris, Éditions du CNRS.
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