Leroi-Gourhan and the chaîne opératoire: a response to Delage

ABSTRACT

The authors reply here to the recent paper by Delage on Leroi-Gourhan and the concept of the chaine opératoire. Leaving aside the excessive nature of his accusations, they show that his confusion of the chaîne opératoire concept and method, ignorance of the developmental context of the 1950s and the 1960s, and his pretence to ‘straighten’ a story without looking at the pertinent archives and interviewing the surviving participants results in a highly biased argument and several misrepresentations.

KEYWORDS:

• Chaine opératoire
• concept
• method
• bias

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Numbers in brackets refer to Delage’s text (p§).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

F. Audouze

Françoise Audouze is directrice de recherche emerita CNRS, a member of the Ethnologie préhistorique team and laboratory since the origin. She was the director of Centre de Recherches Archéologiques laboratory and network for 10 years. She first worked on Bronze Age and later on Upper Palaeolithic. For the last 20 years her research has focused on the Late Magdalenian open-air settlement of Verberie, and on the social organization of the Magdalenian households. (Zubrow E., Audouze F., Enloe J.G. Eds. 2011. The Magdalenian Household. Unraveling Domesticity, Albany, SunyPress. http://www.sunypress.edu/p-5070-the-magdalenian-household.aspx).

P. Bodu

Pierre Bodu is chargé de recherche CNRS, head of the Ethnologie préhistorique team, in the Archéologie et Sciences de l’Antiquité laboratory (UMR7041 ArScAn). A lithic specialist, he has directed excavations at the Magdalenian open-air site of Pincevent and the Azilian site of Le Closeau . He is currently exploring the poorly known early Upper Palaeolithic in the Paris Basin with the Badegoulian site of Oisy and the multi-period site of Ormesson. (Bodu P. et al. 2014. Un dernier hiver à Pincevent : Les Magdaléniens du niveau IV0 (Pincevent, La grande Paroisse, Seine-et-Marne), Gallia Préhistoire, CNRS Editions, 2006, 48: 1–180. http://www.persee.fr/issue/galip_0016-4127_2006_num_48_1?sectionId=galip_0016-4127_2006_num_48_1_2425).

C. Karlin

Claudine Karlin is honorary ingénieur de recherche CNRS, a member of the Ethnologie préhistorique team and laboratory since the origin. With Daniel Cahen, she is at the origin of the chaîne opératoire refitting approach. She has directed excavations at the Magdalenian site of Pincevent. With Francine David, she has conducted ethnoarchaeological research on the reindeer herders and hunters of Siberia. She has co-edited the monograph of the Pincevent IV20 aggregation camp with Michele Julien (http://www.prehistoire.org/shop_515-31884-0-0/m57-2014-un-automne-a-pincevent-le-campement-magdalenien-du-niveau-iv20-m.-julien-et-c.-karlin-br-collectif.html).

M. Julien

Michèle Julien is directrice de recherche emerita CNRS, a member of the Ethnologie préhistorique team and laboratory since the origin and a former head of the team. She has done research on Magdalenian harpoons, and has directed excavations at the Magdalenian site of Pincevent. She is currently editing the monograph on Leroi-Gourhan’s excavations at Grotte du Renne at Arcy-sur-Cure. She has also excavated several prehistoric sites in Peru for a number of years. She has co-edited the monograph of the Pincevent IV20 aggregation camp with Claudine Karlin (http://www.prehistoire.org/shop_515-31884-0-0/m57-2014-un-automne-a-pincevent-le-campement-magdalenien-du-niveau-iv20-m.-julien-et-c.-karlin-br-collectif.html).

J. Pelegrin

Jacques Pelegrin is directeur de recherche CNRS, a member of the Préhistoire et Technologie team - now PreTech Laboratory (UMR 7055) - and a lecturer at the University of Paris-Ouest (Paris X Nanterre). Lithic specialist and knapper, he does research on techno-economy of the French Upper Palaeolithic, on specialized lithic productions during the recent periods (Europe and Middle East); on the contribution of lithic technology to the problem of the evolution of cognitive abilities during the hominisation. He works on methodological aspects (principles for the study of lithic collections, input of experimentation). Pelegrin J., 1995. Technologie lithique : le Châtelperronien de Roc-de-Combe (Lot) et de La Côte (Dordogne). Paris, Edition du CNRS, Cahiers du Quaternaire, n°20.  Pelegrin J. 2012. Sur les débitages laminaires du Paléolithique supérieur. Actes du Colloque international François Bordes edited by J. Jaubert et F. Delpech. Bordeaux, Congrès du CTHS 22-24 avril 2009.

C. Perlès

Catherine Perlès is professor emerita at the University of Paris-Ouest (Paris X-Nanterre). She is at the origin of the « economy of raw materials » approach in France, has participated to the excavations of the Franchti Cave in Greece and published several volumes on Franchti. She has published syntheses on the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic of Greece. She does research on the emergence of crafts specialization, on the organization of productions and exchange, and on the origin of Neolithic in Greece. Perlès C., 2004. Les industries lithiques taillées de Franchthi. Tome III : Du Néolithique ancien au Néolithique final. Bloomington/Indianapolis, Indiana University Press.