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Laurette Séjourné (October 19, 1911 – May 25, 2003) was a Mexican archeologist and ethnologist best known for her study of the civilizations of Teotihuacan and the Aztecs and her theories concerning the Mesoamerican culture hero, Quetzalcoatl. Laurette Séjourné was born in Perugia, Italy, as Laura Valentini Corsa,〔Albertani 2006: 50; Zavala Alonso ed., Noticiario INAH〕 although one also finds her mentioned as Laura Bianchi.〔See 'Agua Quemada'〕 Little is known about her early years; even her precise birth date is rarely mentioned.〔It is given by Ortiz Elguea, Historia〕 In her prime youth, she appears to have moved to France, perhaps in connection with the fascist take-over of 1922; in later life, she still wrote in French. She married a Frenchman, Séjourné, and participated in cultural life and the world of the cinema, meeting such figures as André Breton and Jean Cocteau. Strongly politicized like many others at the times, she divorced her husband,〔see 'Agua Quemada'〕 and left occupied France in exile for Mexico, in 1941. There, she became a naturalized Mexican citizen and married another exile, the Russian novelist and revolutionary known as Victor Serge (Viktor Kibalchich or Kibaltchitch, 1890-1947).〔About Serge's influence on Séjourné's work, see Graulich 1991〕 Soon after his death, she joined the Mexican Communist Party.〔Weissmann 2001: 183〕 Later, she remarried with Arnaldo Orfila, director of the Fondo de Cultura Económica and founder of Siglo XXI Editores. Séjourné's militant spirit can be captured from a passage like the following one:〔''America Latina: Antiguas culturas precolombinas'':7–8〕 Later, her focus came to rest more and more on what to her was the embodiment of this Prehispanic 'utopia', Quetzalcoatl. During the 1950s, Séjourné worked for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). She did anthropological fieldwork in Oaxaca, but then changed to the field of archaeology, excavating at the pre-Spanish metropolis of Teotihuacan, which she believed was the legendary Tollan. She published several beautifully illustrated books on the art and architecture of Teotihuacan. Although she was the first to recognize the discontinuity between Teotihuacan and the much later Aztec civilization, her archaeological work has been subject to criticism.〔Pasztory 1997: 8-9〕 To a wider public she became known through her 1957 publication on the cosmology and religion of the Toltecs and Aztecs, translated into English as ''Burning Water: Thought and Religion in Ancient Mexico''. The book's main focus is the figure of Tollan's priestly king, Quetzalcoatl, and his teachings. Five years later, there was a follow-up in ''Quetzalcoatls' Universe'' (El Universo de Quetzalcoatl, 1962). Perhaps influenced by the ideas of Carl Jung, or by the historian of religion, Mircea Eliade, with whom Séjourné maintained a correspondence,〔Eliade 1989: 237〕 these books sketch a rather spiritualized image of king Quetzalcoatl and his legendary reign, referring to 'laws of interior preparation' supposedly left by the Toltec king and to advances 'along the road to spirituality' made possible by these.〔Séjourné 1976 (): 28, 139〕 Laurette Séjourné's final years were dedicated to bringing education to the Indian peoples of the south of Mexico. Her work is still valued by specialists. ==Notes== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Laurette Séjourné」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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