Claude Gaignebet (1938) got his secondary education in Paris and at Burnt Hill High School, New York. After studying medecine in Paris, he obtained degrees in sociology and psychology at the Sorbonne. Mr Gaignebet obtained a Ph.D in ethnology at the Sorbonne in 1966, and a Ph.D. in literature at the University of Paris X-Nanterre in 1982. He has been working as an editor of 'Folklore et esoterisme' of the Alpha Encyclopedie magazine and as a documentalist of the 'Musee des Arts et Traditions Populaires'(Museum of Arts and Popular Traditions). Since 1972 professor Gaignebet has been teaching at the universities of Paris I, Paris X-Nanterre, Paris VIII, Paris VII, Paris III and the University of Strasbourg. Since 1984 Mr Gaignebet is working as professor in ethnology at the University of Nice. He is also producing a radio program called 'Les chemins de la conaissance' (The roads of knowledge).

His publications include: A plus haut sens. Esoterisme spirituel et charnel de Rabelais, Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris (1985)

Art profane et religion populaire au Moyen Age, PUF, Paris (1986)

L'Homme et l'excretum in: ÔHistoire des moeursÕ (Encyclopedie de la Pleiade), Gallimard, Paris (1990)

Y a-t-il un acte sexuel pour tout l'anthropologie?, 'Histoire critique des pratiques superstitieuses qui ont seduit les peuples et embarrasse les savants', in: idem (1991)

Articles Coutumes, Legendes, Moeurs, Sorcellerie, Traditions in: Encyclopedie culturelle de la France, Eclectis, Paris (1991)

Promenades en Normandie avec Lancelot du Lac, Editions Charles Corlet, Conde-sur-Noirot (1992)