Аннотация:Speaking about oneself is always complicated when one knows, as a social anthropologist, that one is not the centre of the world, and that what one has realised is partly the result of the forces which govern us, and partly that of the collaboration of a network of friends, colleagues, and various teams in the field.However, it is also a pleasure-one of witnessing that there is a future, that things are possible, and that the humanities are useful even if their efficacy cannot always be demonstrated.Here I will add that this is like all human activity, as we are reminded by the myth of Sisyphus, who pushed his stone up to the top of the mountain only to see it go down, and then started pushing it up again.Mystery is the source of energy which leads us to go up again. Religious and political origins of the desire to transform the world: from Vatican 2 to May 1968In a paradoxical manner, even though today I am entirely agnostic in terms of religion, I think that my interest in the applications of sociology and anthropology stemmed from my Catholic past.It is a progressivist past-in other words, one characterised by the belief that the objective of a Christian is to change the world to make it better, more efficient, and
