Daniel Fabre, the brilliant academic and long-time companion of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, passed away on January 24, 2016. I want to pay tribute to him today.
Born in 1947, Daniel Fabre was director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales. From his participation in the task force that laid the foundation for ethnological heritage policy in 1978 to his pioneering interest in intangible cultural heritage in the 2000s, he has been closely associated with the work of my Ministry.
We owe him in particular, together with Jean Guilaine, the foundation of the Toulouse Anthropology Centre, then, in 2001, that of the Laboratory of Anthropology and History of the Institution of Culture (LAHIC), a research unit led by the CNRS and the Department’s ethnological heritage mission.
Initially focused on oral traditions in rural Pyrenean societies, his research then focused on the social production of sexual identities, the emergence of writing in oral societies and the anthropological approach of literature. At the head of LAHIC he played a leading role in the establishment of many research programs that questioned the cultural institution, and especially the heritage activities: The Heroes' Factory (with Pierre Centlivres and Françoise Zonabend, 1998), research on historical monuments (Domestiquer l'Histoire, 2000 and Les monuments sont habités, with Anna Iuso, in 2010), Les émotions patrimoniales en 2013) and the archaeological institution (Les imaginaires archéologiques, directed by Claudie Voisenat in 2008).
At the GARAE ethnopole in Carcassonne that he presided over, he always showed great interest in cultural mediation for all audiences, while remaining faithful to the love of beautiful texts and to an intellectual requirement without concession.
I offer his family my deepest condolences.