The Research Center for Anthropology and Comparative Sociology or LESC (Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative - LESC) is a cross-faculty research entity of the Paris West University Nanterre La Défense[1] and the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)[2] The center was founded in 1967 at Paris X University by Eric de Dampierre, and associated with the National Scientific Research Council (CNRS) from 1968.
In 1989 it became a Mixed Research Unit (UMR).
The spectrum of research activities covered by the LESC is quite vast, reaching from traditional fieldwork based ethnography to visual anthropology.
These activities are conducted mainly within the three scientific research departments: They are two learned societies housed in the LESC.
The Library named after Eric de Dampierre has one of the largest collection of anthropological reviews and files on Africanist, Americanist and Mongol studies in France.