Marcel Maget

Marcel Maget, born on May 30, 1909, in Vincennes and deceased on March 3, 1994, in Paris, was a French ethnographer and teacher who deeply marked the history of our commune. Known as one of the pioneers of 1940s ethnology, he dedicated a large part of his career to the study of villages and peasant societies, developing a rigorous methodology for ethnographic surveys. Maget held several important positions, notably as an assistant curator at the National Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions from 1946 to 1962. He also directed the French Ethnology Laboratory within the same museum from 1948 to 1962. In 1970, he was appointed director of the Musée Dauphinois in Grenoble, although he only stayed for one year. His connection to our commune stems from his in-depth ethnographic study of the "boiled bread" tradition in our village. From 1946 to 1970, he documented the production of this black bread made from rye and boiled water, kneaded and baked in our communal oven. His work highlighted the decline of this centuries-old tradition. Maget's research on our village resulted in a booklet in 1948, a film in 1953, and a doctoral thesis in 1973, which remains a reference in the field today.