Marius Barbeau was born in 1883 in the Beauce region of Sainte-Marie. His life was dedicated to his occupation as an ethnographer. His research focused on the French-Canadian culture and his work is unmatched to this day.
Barbeau studied law at Laval University to become a lawyer or notary for four years and unexpectedly won a Rhodes scholarship to go to Oxford University. After attending his first two classes at Oxford he changed his major to anthropology, as suggested by his tutor Reynold Marrett, because he wanted to study people. He also went to La Sorbonne in Paris, France to continue his studies in anthropology. After three years at Oxford and La Sorbonne he graduated and was encouraged to return to Canada's Geological Survey by his professor, Marcel Mauss, and study anthropology there.
The Geological Survey sent him to Washington DC in 1914 for a meeting with the Anthropological Association. There, Dr. Franz Boas from Columbia University told him that he needed to go back to Canada and study French-Canadian folklore. He was to start his studies in Lorette, where Barbeau had heard some stories and expand from there.
He returned to Lorette shortly after and collected many folksongs from Lorette also expanding to Charlevois County, Kamouraska County, and Beauce County. From this research he wrote a 150-page book called Journal of American Folk-Lore. This research also got him elected as the President of the American Folklore Society from 1916 to 1917. “This was the beginning of recording and publishing more folktales in eight long issues of the Journal of American Folk-Lore down to 1950,” (Barbeau 3). He also served as the editor for the journal from his presidency with the American Folklore Society until 1950. He prepared ten exclusive Canadian articles containing some of the most valuable information on French-Canadian folklore. The most important article he published was Contes Populaires Canadiens, which presented 197 French-Canadian tails, many of them collected by Barbeau himself.
During his time as an ethnographer he studied Indians, linguistics, folklore, folksongs, and folk art. He collected artifacts for many museums like the Royal Ontario Museum, the University of British Columbia, the Chambly Museum, and the Sir Wilifrid Laurier Commemoration Museum. He also earned many awards for his contributions.. These include: the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Canada, multiple degrees from the universities of Montreal, Laval and Oxford, and “he was one of the first group to earn the title of “Champion of the Order of Canada” established to honor distinguished citizens who have shown outstanding merit of the highest degree,” (Fowke 299).
Marius Barbeau died on March 27, 1969 in an Ottawa hospital at the age of 85. He believed that he was a pioneer in his work. His life and the contributions he made to Canada were commemorated by the National Museum of man in 1983, which was the centennial of his birth.
Journal of American Folklore, Volume 82, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1969
Former link, www.quebecweb.com/tourisme/chaudapp/musees/barbeau/introang.html, (February, 2003)
Written By: Megan Fischer, 2003