It is only in 1951 that structuralism first begins to be perceived as a rival methodology with terms of reference that are incompatible with the phenomenological approach. The first six years, although packed with incident, are years of harmony and co-operation as far as the synthetic and academic anthropologies are concerned. Little material of the latter category is to be found in the review – no more than 2% of TM's output, in fact – and the reasons for this lie primarily in the state of the discipline. There are a number of significant factors that together prompt practitioners to engage in an urgent quest for disciplinary identity: the disruption occasioned by the war; the possibility that a change in the nature of the relationship of metropolis and colonies might affect the object of study, perhaps to the point of causing it to vanish altogether; the problematic character of the boundaries separating anthropology from other closely related areas; and, last but not least, anthropology's very tenuous foothold in French higher education. In 1945, the theoretical and methodological basis provided by Mauss stands in need of innovative consolidation. With TM seeking to establish itself at the same time, it is not surprising that mutual support should be offered and that certain influential figures should be prominent in both ventures.