Écritures

L'écriture constitue-t-elle le trait d'union entre technique et culture, et par là entre science et culture ? Cet ouvrage donne des éléments de réponse à cette double question, à l'acuité renouvelée par le numérique. il fait donc appel aux anthropologues et philosophes (Jack Goody, Jens Brockmeier, David Olson…), aux spécialistes des pratiques lettrées de l'antiquité (Christophe Batsch, Flavia Carraro), de l'internet (Paul Mathias, Henri Desbois, Michael Heim…), de la physique et des mathématiques (Jean Dhombres, Patrick Flandrin, Cédric Villani). En ce sens, cet ouvrage poursuit les réflexions largement entamées avec Regards croisés sur l'internet (enssib, 2011). Mais en explorant des voies nouvelles : les relations particulières qu'entretiennent les mathématiciens, et, plus largement les scientifiques, avec l'écriture. Cette publication est issue d'un colloque international consacré à Jack Goody, qui s'est tenu à l'enssib du 24 au 26 janvier 2008, auquel il a contribué et qu'il a conclu

Assets and domestic units: methodological challenges for longitudinal studies of poverty dynamics

Tracking change in assets access and ownership in longitudinal research is difficult. Assets are rarely assigned to individuals. Their benefit and management are spread across domestic units which morph over time. We review the challenges of using assets to understand poverty dynamics, and tracking the domestic units that own and manage assets. Using case studies from longitudinal research we demonstrate that assets can afford useful insights into important change

The Churches' Bans on Consanguineous Marriages, Kin-Networks and Democracy

This paper highlights the role of kin-networks for the functioning of modern societies: countries with strong extended families as characterized by a high level of cousin marriages exhibit a weak rule of law and are more likely autocratic. To assess causality, I exploit a quasi-natural experiment. In the early medieval ages the Church started to prohibit kin-marriages. Using the variation in the duration and extent of the Eastern and Western Churches' bans on consanguineous marriages as instrumental variables, reveals highly significant point estimates of the percentage of cousin marriage on an index of democracy. An additional novel instrument, cousin-terms, strengthens this point: the estimates are very similar and do not rest on the European experience alone. Exploiting within country variation of cousin marriages in Italy, as well as within variation of a 'societal marriage pressure' indicator for a larger set of countries support these results. These findings point to a causal effect of marriage patterns on the proper functioning of formal institutions and democracy. The study further suggests that the Churches' marriage rules - by destroying extended kin-groups - led Europe on its special path of institutional and democratic development

Ochre, ground stone and wrapping the dead in the Late Epipalaeolithic (Natufian) Levant: revealing the funerary practices at Shubayqa 1, Jordan

The appearance of rich and diverse funerary practices is one of the hallmarks of the Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian in the Levant. Numerous burials at a number of sites excavated mostly in the Mediterranean zone of the southern Levant have fed into the interpretation of the Natufian as a sedentary society of complex hunter-gatherers. Here, we report on the human remains recovered from Shubayqa 1, a well-dated early to late Natufian site in northeast Jordan. The majority of the minimum of 23 individuals that are represented are perinates and infants, which represents an atypical population profile. Ground stone artifacts and traces of colourants are associated with some of these individuals, providing a rare insight into funerary treatment of subadults in Natufian contexts. We interpret the Shubayqa 1 evidence in the light of current and ongoing debates concerning Natufian burial practices and the issue of social complexity