Born in Griaute received a good education and was preparing to become an engineer and enrolled at the prestigious when in 1917 at the end of World War I he volunteered to become a pilot in the French Air Force.
In 1920 he returned to university , where he attended the lectures of Marcel Mauss and Marcel Cohen . Intrigued by anthropology, he gave up plans for a technical career . In 1927 he received a degree from the Ecole Nationle de Langues Orientales, where he concentrated on Amharjc and Ge'ez.