As an ethnologist and archaeologist, André Leroi-Gourhan was a driving force behind the development of prehistoric disciplines, particularly in the field, with a rigorous systematization of archaeological surveys and a multi-disciplinary approach to excavation (geology, archaeozoology, palynology, etc.).
His practice of " ethnology of the past " leads him to conceive of human evolution as a co-evolution of the biological and the technical, linking material culture, mental structures and social organization. In particular, he discusses the transmission of gestures and tools through speech.
In his lectures at the Collège de France from 1969 to 1982, he presented technical approaches to interpreting archaeological contexts, or " l'interprétation des structures enfouies ". The example of the Pincevent huts was the subject of a series of lessons (1970-1971) illustrating excavation, the spatial organization of objects and the reconstruction of human occupation.
The thematic approach to space is central to his discourse (geology, geometry and chronology) and he develops a conception of prehistoric times structured by material cultures (archaeological objects) and by paleoenvironments identified by fauna and pollen and carpological remains (notably enabling the alternation of glacial and interglacial periods to be determined).
Written by Juliette Henrion (PhD, Chair of Paleoanthropology, CIRB-Collège de France-CNRS /UMR 7241 - Inserm U1050).
