Jean Price-Mars

Jean Price-Mars (1876-1969) was a Haitian anthropologist, writer, scholar, medical doctor, and politician. Within the field of anthropology, he is best known for his work on religion and race. Price-Mars helped define the field of the anthropology of religion in his work on voodoo, in which he argued that the belief system -- which was widely derided by Europeans as "superstition" -- was a fully functioning religion on par with Christianity and other colonial, institutionally-recognized religions. Price-Mars also forwarded anthropological thinking about the cultural construction of race and ethnicity through his study of class and racial structures in Haiti. In addition to his scholarly work, Price-Mars served as an ambassador to multiple countries and Haiti's Minister for Foreign Affairs.