In this conference on marriage in North Africa, Pierre Bourdieu offers a critical perspective on the state of anthropology and social sciences. He focuses on the role his works had in these realms and on the paradigm shift they have contributed to. The main reasons behind the break with Lévi‑Strauss’s thought are developed in this text. In her introduction, Tassadit Yacine restores the socio‑political context of the formation and elaboration of Bourdieu’s questions in these domains during the Algerian war.