Summary: | This article aims first and foremost to retrace the history of the notions of social inequality and
cultural diversity in the human and social sciences. For more than a century, these notions have
been fundamental to sociology and anthropology, but their meaning has evolved due to profound
changes in the context. We will insist in particular on the perspectives inherited from Durkheim,
Bourdieu, Mauss and Lévi-Strauss to shed light on these notions in French academic research.
Secondly, we will show how the conceptions of inequality and diversity are in crisis today. We
will propose some theoretical paths to renew these notions in contemporary European societies,
based on a few ethnographic examples taken from the field of traditional festivals and games.
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