Hegemonic Gravity and Utopian pluralism: A comparative framework for analyzing the international space in anthropology

The content of RAM - WAN are under a creative commons license which makes it possible to re-use this content for non-commercial purposes if it is credited. http://www.ram-wan.net/html/journalThe paper outlines a framework for studying national traditions and international circulation, with reference to anthropologyl'article propose un cadre comparatif d'analyse de la constitution d'un espace international en anthropologie

"Money is good, but a friend is better". Uncertainty, orientation to the future and "the economy"

à paraître dans Current Anthropology,Based on a long-term ethnography in State-run settlement projects on former sugarcane plantations in Northeast Brazil, the paper questions the evidence of "the economy" as a privileged framework for understanding the life situation of the poor, structured by precariousness and uncertainty about the future. Exploring the polysemy of Portuguese esperar (to wait, to hope and to expect), it analyzes the plurality of orientations to the future among former sugarcane wage workers included as beneficiaries in land reform projects, and their strategies to mitigate uncertainty in various configurations. If radical uncertainty lies out of human hands, relative uncertainty may be acted upon by mobilizing people. While money is desirable, but has a transitory character, the value of friends lies in their potential to 'help', especially in case of a 'crisis'. Ethnography thus suggests to move beyond an 'economic anthropology' aiming to analyze "other economies", and set out to explore the fields of opportunities and frames of reference that structure life situations, and the local versions of oikonomia, in its original meaning of "government of the household"

Musei post-etnografici: Le trasformazioni dei rapporti tra antropologia e museo in Francia

The article analyses the contemporary transformations of the relationships between anthropology and museums in France in the wake of the opening in recent years of the Musée du quai Branly, the Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée (MUCEM), and the reopening in 2015 of the Musée de l’Homme. The relationship between museums and anthropology, historically tighter in France than in other national contexts, explains the intensity of reactions triggered by these transformations. Retracing the historical transformations of ethnographic museums, and especially the ideal of the ‘museum-laboratory’, shows the enduring role of the naturalist, encyclopedic paradigm. The exhaustion of the natural history paradigm, in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris as in ethnographic museums, has produced a change in the role of museums, with a shift from a museological discourse under the spell of science and rationalism to a more aesthetic and emotional approach. However, the new Musée de l'Homme embodies a revival of the naturalist and evolutionist paradigm. These new museums, which can be defined as 'post-ethnographic', have avoided a critical reflexive confrontation with history and colonial legacies. Meanwhile French anthropology is now facing the challenge of reinventing itself as a ‘post-museum anthropology’.L’articolo riflette sulle trasformazioni contemporanee dei rapporti tra antropologia e museo in Francia alla luce dell’apertura negli ultimi anni del Musée du quai Branly, del Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée (MUCEM), e del rinnovamento del Musée de l'Homme. La relazione tra musei e antropologia, storicamente più stretta in Francia che in altri contesti nazionali, spiega l’intensità delle reazioni suscitate da queste trasformazioni. La ricostruzione della successione dei progetti di musei etnografici, e in particolare l’ideale del ‘museo-laboratorio’, dimostra il ruolo duraturo del paradigma enciclopedico-naturalista. L’esaurimento del paradigma naturalista, tanto negli stessi musei di storia naturale come il Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle di Parigi quanto nei musei etnografici, ha prodotto una trasformazione del ruolo dei musei, sancito dal passaggio da un discorso museografico centrato sulla scienza e il razionalismo ad un approccio estetizzante fondato sulle emozioni. Allo stesso tempo, il paradigma naturalista ed evoluzionista rinasce nel nuovo Musée de l'Homme, inaugurato nel 2015. Questi nuovi musei, che possono essere definiti come ‘post-etnografici’, non sono ancora riusciti a fare i conti con la storia e con il loro passato coloniale. Nel contempo, l’antropologia francese si trova di fronte alla sfida di reinventarsi come ‘antropologia post-museo’

« Une petite armée de travailleurs auxiliaires »

La présence de l’ethnologie dans cet ouvrage n’a, a priori, rien d’évident. En effet, cette discipline se présente souvent aujourd’hui comme très individualiste. Nombre d’ethnologues cultivent l’image romantique du chercheur isolé sur un terrain lointain, en tête-à-tête avec lui-même et avec ses informateurs indigènes. Ce qui semble caractériser ce mode de connaissance, par opposition aux autres sciences sociales, c’est précisément son très faible degré de division du travail : l’ethnologue a..

Les Musées des Autres, du Trocadéro au Musée de l'Homme

Version n'intégrant pas les dernières corrections.International audienceThe Quai Branly Museum is devoted to “the non-Western arts and cultures.” The very definition of the museum is laid down in contrast to a point of reference that is characterized as Western, and contemporary. This museum is thus a classic museum of the Other – at the same time similar to and different from previous museums of the Other, in particular the Musée de l'Homme. Because it emphasizes the aesthetic dimension above others, the Musée du Quai Branly epitomizes the end of the ethnologists' monopoly on interpretation regarding objects and artifacts that belong to the Other. It also illustrates some paradoxes the ways France deals with her colonial past

Les Musées des Autres, du Trocadéro au Musée de l'Homme

Version n'intégrant pas les dernières corrections.International audienceThe Quai Branly Museum is devoted to “the non-Western arts and cultures.” The very definition of the museum is laid down in contrast to a point of reference that is characterized as Western, and contemporary. This museum is thus a classic museum of the Other – at the same time similar to and different from previous museums of the Other, in particular the Musée de l'Homme. Because it emphasizes the aesthetic dimension above others, the Musée du Quai Branly epitomizes the end of the ethnologists' monopoly on interpretation regarding objects and artifacts that belong to the Other. It also illustrates some paradoxes the ways France deals with her colonial past

"Money is good, but a friend is better". Uncertainty, orientation to the future and "the economy"

à paraître dans Current Anthropology,Based on a long-term ethnography in State-run settlement projects on former sugarcane plantations in Northeast Brazil, the paper questions the evidence of "the economy" as a privileged framework for understanding the life situation of the poor, structured by precariousness and uncertainty about the future. Exploring the polysemy of Portuguese esperar (to wait, to hope and to expect), it analyzes the plurality of orientations to the future among former sugarcane wage workers included as beneficiaries in land reform projects, and their strategies to mitigate uncertainty in various configurations. If radical uncertainty lies out of human hands, relative uncertainty may be acted upon by mobilizing people. While money is desirable, but has a transitory character, the value of friends lies in their potential to 'help', especially in case of a 'crisis'. Ethnography thus suggests to move beyond an 'economic anthropology' aiming to analyze "other economies", and set out to explore the fields of opportunities and frames of reference that structure life situations, and the local versions of oikonomia, in its original meaning of "government of the household"