Jean-Pierre Vernant facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jean-Pierre Vernant
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Vernant in 2006
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| Born | January 4, 1914 Provins, France
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| Died | January 9, 2007 (aged 93) Sèvres, France
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Anthropologist, historian |
Jean-Pierre Vernant (born January 4, 1914 – died January 9, 2007) was a French historian and anthropologist. He was an expert on ancient Greece.
Vernant was inspired by Claude Lévi-Strauss. He created a special way of studying Greek myths, tragedy, and society. This method looked at the hidden patterns and structures in these topics. His ideas became very important for other experts who studied ancient Greece. He was also a respected professor at the Collège de France.
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About His Life
Jean-Pierre Vernant was born in Provins, France. He first studied philosophy. In 1937, he earned a special teaching qualification called an agrégation in philosophy.
During World War II, Vernant joined the French Resistance. This was a secret group that fought against the German occupation of France. He was part of a group called Libération-sud. Later, he led a part of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) in an area called Haute-Garonne. He used the secret name "Colonel Berthier." For his bravery, he was given a special honor called "Companion of the Liberation." After the war, he was a member of the French Communist Party until 1969.
In 1948, he started working at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), which is a big research center in France. There, he began to study the anthropology of ancient Greece. Ten years later, he became a director at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). In 1971, he became a professor at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. He went there with another scholar, François Châtelet, to protest against the military government in Brazil at that time.
Vernant also supported groups that worked for peace. He was part of a French committee that promoted peace and non-violence for children around the world. He also helped fund an organization called Non-Violence XXI.
He received the CNRS gold medal in 1984, which is a very high award for French scientists. In 2002, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Crete.
Jean-Pierre Vernant passed away in Sèvres when he was 93 years old. After his death, a high school in Sèvres was named "Lycée Jean-Pierre Vernant" in his honor.
His Important Ideas
Jean-Pierre Vernant's way of studying things, called the structuralist approach, was very important. It influenced many scholars who studied ancient Greece.
For example, Vernant's ideas about the myth of Prometheus greatly influenced a philosopher named Bernard Stiegler. Stiegler used Vernant's work in his book, Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus.
Awards and Honors
Jean-Pierre Vernant received many important awards and honors during his life:
Main Honors
- Commander of the Légion d'honneur
- Grand Cross of the Ordre national du Mérite
- Compagnon de la Libération (for his role in the Resistance)
- Croix de Guerre (a military honor)
- Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
- Commander of the Order of the Phoenix (Greece)
Special Prizes
- 1980: Amic Award from the Académie Française
- 1984: Médaille d'or du CNRS (CNRS Gold Medal)
- 1991: Gold Medal of History (San Marino)
- 1993: Award for Humanistic Studies from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Honorary Degrees
He also received special honorary degrees from many universities around the world, including:
- University of Chicago
- University of Oxford
- University of Crete (in 2002)
His Books
Jean-Pierre Vernant wrote many important books about ancient Greece. These books explored Greek myths, history, and society. Some of his famous works include:
- Origins of Greek Thought
- Myth and Thought among the Greeks
- Tragedy and Myth in Ancient Greece (with Pierre Vidal-Naquet)
- Myth and Society in Ancient Greece
- Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture and Society (with Marcel Detienne)
- The Universe, The Gods, and Men: Ancient Greek Myths
See also
In Spanish: Jean-Pierre Vernant para niños
