Terrains minés

article d'introduction du n°2001/1 de la revue d'Ethnologie Français

Terrains minés

article d'introduction du n°2001/1 de la revue d'Ethnologie Français

La mixité religieuse dans les pèlerinages

L'article tente d'ébaucher un itinéraire comparatif à travers les pèlerinages «pluriels» en Eurasie. La discussion est amorcée à partir de l'examen de deux positions antithétiques sur une telle question: la vision d'un auteur aujourd'hui plutôt oublié comme Romain Roussel, et celle prônée par Victor Turner, le chercheur qui a le plus marqué les études sur les pèlerinages depuis une quarantaine d'années. Pour le second, dans les grandes religions historiques les pèlerinages sont éminemment monoreligieux. Pour le premier, les convergences dévotionnelles dans les mêmes sanctuaires sont au contraire très répandues. La réticence à traiter des croisements interreligieux dans les synthèses consacrées aux pèlerinages semblerait donner tacitement raison à Turner. Cependant l'article suggère que c'est la position de Roussel qui est réaliste. Une vaste documentation indique que les franchissements des frontières religieuses sont très répandus. Les fréquentations mixtes des sanctuaires méritent d'être prises en compte par une théorie générale des pèlerinages.The article attempts to develop a comparative perspective on “plural” pilgrimages in Eurasia. The discussion begins by considering two antithetical positions on this issue: the vision of an author rather forgotten today as Romain Roussel, and that advocated by Victor Turner, the author who has exerted the most significant impact on research on pilgrimages in the last forty years. For the second, in the great historical religions pilgrimages are highly mono-religious. For the first, interreligious confluences at the same shrines are actually widespread. The reluctance to deal with such inter-crossing in synthesis devoted to pilgrimages seems to suggest an implicit agreement with Turner's view. However, the article suggests that the Roussel's position is the realistic one. An extensive literature indicates that the crossing of religious borders is widespread. Such mixed attendance of sanctuaries should be taken into account by a general theory of pilgrimage.El artículo trata de esbozar un itinerario comparativo a través de las peregrinaciones “plurales” en Eurasia. La discusión comienza a partir del examen de dos posiciones antitéticas sobre una cuestión: la visión de un autor hoy más bien olvidado como Romain Roussel, y la que sostiene Victor Turner, el investigador que ha marcado más profundamente los estudios sobre las peregrinaciones desde hace una cuarentena de años. Para el segundo, en las grandes religiones históricas las peregrinaciones son eminentemente monorreligiosas. Para el primero, las convergencias devocionales en los mismos santuarios están, por el contrario, muy difundidas. La reticencia a tratar cruzamientos interreligiosos en las síntesis consagradas a las peregrinaciones parecería dar tácitamente la razón a Turner. Sin embargo, el artículo sugiere que la posición de Roussel resulta realista. Una vasta documentación indica que los pasajes de las fronteras religiosas están muy difundidos. Las frecuentaciones mixtas de los santuarios merecen ser tomadas en cuenta por una teoría general de las peregrinaciones

Analyse comparative des formes d’organisation domestique dans l’espace alpin. Problèmes de recherche sur l’histoire socioéconomique des populations alpines

Dionigi Albera, chargé de recherche au CNRS Cf. le compte rendu des séminaires de Joseph Goy et Gérard Béaur

Digressions on Polytropy: An Exploration of Religious Eclecticism in Eurasia

The anthropologist Michael Carrithers introduced the notion of polytropy in the field of the study of religion, proposing that this notion (deriving from the Greek poly, ‘many’, and tropos, ‘turning’) may account for the eclecticism and fluidity of South Asian religious life. The exploration effectuated in the article suggests that the notion of polytropy could offer a promising tool for capturing some important features of religiosity in other Asiatic contexts, too, as well as in the Mediterranean. Polytropic trends appear in different religious contexts, from the fuzzy Chinese situation, where religious affiliations are very limited in their scope and relevance, to the South Asian contexts, in which religious orientations coalesce around the multivocal concept of dharma, to the tightly structured Abrahamic religions in the Mediterranean with their strong confessionalism. Polytropy is associated with a practical mode of religiosity and is linked to a particular conception of believing in which the believer tends to multiply the transactions with different supra-mundane partners. This orientation is distinct from religious styles that are based on a discursive and scriptural approach and/or on the cultivation of oneself, which often display a tendency towards unity, coherence and continuity. This permits identifying an opposite pole with respect to polytropy, which I define as monotropy

La signora d'Africa: anatomia di un santuario moriano in terra d'Islam

International audienceThe article investigates some aspects of the complex symbolic construction of the figure of the Madonna, at the border between two religious universes. Attention will focus on an area of contact between Christianity and Islam, which is materialized in the history of an important Marian sanctuary in North Af rica, the Basilica of Our Lady of Af rica in Algiers. This Catholic pilgrimage site also attracts Muslim faithful. At first, these interfaith events developed in the f rame work of the French colonial state, where a Christian minority dominated a large Muslim majority. Then, they continued after the independence of the country in 1962, although the construction of the post-colonial state was characterized by a strong push towards homogenization of the population f rom a religious point of view. The article shows a surprising stability of the mixed attendance at Our Lady of Af rica for about 150 years, despite the changing political, social and cultural context. In the sanctuary distinct religious groups have continued to share the same space, even in times of hatred and violence. This peaceful organization of everyday life in the sanctuary is built into a complex history of relations of power and a network of often-contradictory symbols and meanings.L’articolo indaga alcuni aspetti della complessa costruzione simbolica della figura della Madonna, alla f rontiera tra due universi religiosi. L’attenzione si concentra su una zona di contatto tra cristianesimo e islam, materializzata nella storia di un importante santuario mariano dell’Af rica settentrionale, la basilica di Nostra Signora d’Af rica ad Algeri. Questo sito cattolico di pellegrinaggio attira anche fedeli musulmani. In un primo tempo, queste manifestazioni interreligiose si sono sviluppate nell’ambito dello stato coloniale f rancese, dove una minoranza cristiana dominava una vasta maggioranza musulmana. Poi, sono continuate dopo l’indipendenza del 1962, anche se la costruzione dello stato post-coloniale è stata caratterizzata da un forte spinta verso l’omogeneizzazione della popolazione da un punto di vista religioso. L’articolo mostra una stabilità sorprendente della frequentazione mista di Nostra Signora d’Af rica per circa 150 anni, nonostante il cambiamento dei contesti politici, sociali e culturali. Nel santuario la condivisione dello stesso spazio da parte di gruppi religiosi distinti si è protratta anche in tempidi odio e di violenza. Tale organizzazione pacifica della vita quotidiana nel santuario è incorporata in una storia complessa di relazioni di potere e in una rete di simboli e significati spesso contraddittori

La synagogue de la Ghriba à Djerba. Réflexions sur l’inclusivité d’un sanctuaire partagé en Tunisie

À la fois lieu de culte et lieu saint, la synagogue de la Ghriba sur l’île de Djerba en Tunisie est un sanctuaire fréquenté conjointement par des fidèles juifs et musulmans. Ce type de « partage » relève d’un phénomène attesté dans l’ensemble du Maghreb sur la longue durée, mais qui s’est vu considérablement réduit à la suite de l’émigration progressive des juifs sépharades vers l’Europe et Israël à partir du milieu du xxe siècle. À Djerba toutefois, cette mixité interreligieuse a perduré, car une communauté juive a subsisté localement jusqu’à nos jours. En 2002, un attentat attribué à Al-Qaïda puis les conséquences de la révolution dite « de Jasmin » (2011) ont particulièrement limité cette inclusivité, ainsi que le retour ponctuel de ces juifs tunisiens en quête de racines. Le pèlerinage annuel revêt en effet une forte dimension mémorielle et identitaire valorisée par l’État au nom d’une mythique « convivencia ». Plus largement, cet article vise à appréhender cette hétérogénéité interconfessionnelle en questionnant la problématique de l’ouverture de ce sanctuaire emblématique des croisements dévotionnels entre juifs et musulmans au Maghreb.Both place of worship and holy place, the Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba in Tunisia is a sanctuary attended jointly by both Jews and Muslims. This “sharing” is a long term phenomenon attested throughout the Maghreb, but elsewhere has been considerably reduced as a result of the progressive emigration of Jews to Europe and Israel in the mid-twentieth century. However these interfaith crossings have lasted in Djerba since a Jewish community has stayed locally until nowadays. In 2002, an attack imputed to Al-Qaeda and then the consequences of the so-called Jasmin Revolution (2011) further limited this inclusiveness, as well as the punctual return of these Tunisian Jews in search of roots. Indeed the annual pilgrimage has a strong memorial and identity dimension promoted by the State in the name of a mythical “convivencia”. More broadly, this article aims at understanding this heterogeneity by questioning the issue of the opening of this emblematic sanctuary of devotional crossings between Jews and Muslims in the Maghreb

Cultures in Mountain Areas / Culture in aree di montagna / Kulturen in Gebirgsregionen

Comparative studies of mountain areas have long been at the core of the discussion about the relations between nature and culture as well as on environmental and social change. This volume searches for ways to develop further critical comparative perspectives in the study of cultures in mountain areas by drawing inter- and transdisciplinary links amongst anthropology, geography, folklore studies, montology, and global history. Drawing on examples mostly from the Alps and the Andes, but also extending to the global mountains, the authors explore socioecological environments, historical and political processes, borderscapes, demographic dynamics, forms of domestic organization, rituals, religiosities, and human-non-humanrelations.Gli studi comparativi sulle aree montane sono da tempo al centro del dibattito sul rapporto tra natura e cultura e sui cambiamenti ecologici e sociali. Questo volume è alla ricerca di nuovi percorsi per sviluppare ulteriormente prospettive comparative critiche per lo studio delle culture delle aree montane, tracciando collegamenti inter- e transdisciplinari tra antropologia, geografia, studi di folklore, montologia e storia globale. Basandosi su esempi provenienti soprattutto dalle Alpi e dalle Ande, ma estendendo l’orizzonte anche ad altre regioni montane a livello globale, le autrici e gli autori esplorano ambienti socio-ecologici, processi storici e politici, paesaggi di confine, dinamiche demografiche, forme di organizzazione domestica, rituali, religiosità e relazioni tra umani e non-umani.Vergleichende Studien über Bergregionen stehen seit langem im Zentrum der Debatte über das Verhältnis zwischen Natur und Kultur sowie über den ökologischen und sozialen Wandel. Dieser Band sucht nach Wegen, kritische vergleichende Perspektiven in der Erforschung von Kulturen in Bergregionen weiterzuentwickeln, indem er inter- und transdisziplinäre Verbindungen zwischen Anthropologie, Geographie, Volkskunde, Montologie und (Welt-)Geschichte herstellt. Anhand von Beispielen vor allem aus den Alpen und den Anden, aber auch aus anderen Gebirgsregionen der Welt, untersuchen die Autor:innen sozioökologische Umwelten, historische und politische Prozesse, Grenzlandschaften, demografische Dynamiken, Formen der häuslichen Organisation, Rituale, Religiosität und Mensch-/Nicht-Mensch-Beziehungen

Shifting markers of identity in East London's diasporic religious spaces

This article discusses the historical and geographical contexts of diasporic religious buildings in East London, revealing – contrary both to conventional narratives of immigrant integration, mobility, and succession and to identitarian understandings of belonging – that in such spaces and in the concrete devotional practices enacted in them, markers and boundaries of identity (ritual, spatial, and political) are contested, renegotiated, erased, and rewritten. It draws on a series of case-studies: Fieldgate Street Synagogue in its interrelationship with the East London Mosque; St Antony's Catholic Church in Forest Gate where Hindus and Christians worship together; and the intertwined histories of Methodism and Anglicanism in Bow Road. Exploration of the intersections between ethnicity, religiosity, and class illuminates the ambiguity and instability of identity-formation and expression within East London's diasporic faith spaces

Sacred Rhythms and Political Frequencies: Reading Lefebvre in an Urban House of Prayer

In recent years, Lefebvre’s concept of rhythm analysis has been implied in various ways to critically examine how rhythms are formed, disrupted, and reformed through different urban venues. One theme that this body of knowledge has yet to comprehensively examine, however, is how changes in the urban sphere impact the spatial rhythms of religious institutions in cities, which can be pivotal for understanding how religious institutions are formed as urban public spaces. This article addresses this issue with a rhythm analysis of a particular religious urban locus: a synagogue in the mixed Palestinian and Jewish city of Acre in northern Israel. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and an urban survey, the article discusses how different forms of rhythm making undergo a process of contested synchronization with linear and cyclical rhythms of the city. More specifically, how the ability to forge a space hinges on the ability to maintain a rhythmic cycle of attendance, which, in turn, is not only dependent on the ability to achieve synchronization amongst the needs of the different participants but is also intertwined with the larger linear cycle of urban life as a rhythmic equation that fuses the personal with the political, the linear with the cyclical, and the religious with the urban