Barefoot Anthropologist

French anthropologist Jacques Dournes lived in Vietnam for 25 years, from 1946 to 1970, studying the culture of the Jarai and other highland ethnic groups. He became a renowned ethnographer and the Jarai people became his lifelong passion. In part one of this study, the author explores Dournes's monograph Pötao : une théorie du pouvoir chez les Indochinois Jörai. In part two, Dournes speaks animatedly with the author about the Jarai, his feelings about culture and economics, his understanding of Vietnam's history, and his personal experience of living in the Central Highlands. The French transcript of the interview is presented in the appendix.