Mauss on the First World War as trauma and turning point

The First World War, which has been a terrible ordeal for the two main Europeans societies in the conflict—Germany and France—and for the 8 million individuals who had been mobilized in a war of mass killing, has been also an ordeal for Marcel Mauss: deaths of members of his family, friends, and colleagues. From on September 3, 1914 to January 1919, Mauss, volunteered, has been mobilized: interpreter to a combat unit, the Twenty-seventh British Division; officer-interpreter third-class and detached Fifth Australian Division (Australian Imperial Force), etc. We may think the World War have been a trauma and a turning point in Marcel Mauss’ life and work. My paper, which is based on a considerable documentation (interviews, archives, correspondence, manuscripts), is divided in three parts: before, during, after the war.