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Twenty years ago, the Journal du CNRS published a short note entitled “La perle de la pluridisciplinarité” (“The pearl of multidisciplinarity”), a Word Game about an experiment carried out with carnelian bead craftsmen working in the town of Khambhat (India, Gujarat state) by a small group of five researchers from different institutions and various scientific fields: archaeology, psychology, biomechanics and neuroscience. This article examines various facets of this interdisciplinary experience, analyzing the way questions were posed, collaborations formed, relationships between researchers. Other issues such as funding and publications are also considered as well as institutional difficulties and scientific misunderstandings of such approaches, knowing that disciplinary boundaries often remain the standard.