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In 1980, the creation of a government service and a scientific board devoted to ethnological heritage was the result of both the official implementation of an administrative report and the unofficial influence wielded by a close associate of Claude Lévi-Strauss. Along with the support of the Endowment for Cultural Intervention and the Department of Studies of the Ministry of Culture, this service ultimately legitimized the contribution of militant ethnography, as practised by associations working to revive traditional forms of music and dance, with the Union Poitou-Charentes pour la culture populaire [Poitou-Charentes Association for Popular Culture] leading the charge. Nonetheless, as this service was largely incompatible with the desire to professionalize French ethnology, the co-construction of a heritage policy building off of this social movement quickly fizzled out.