Des personnes incomplètes aux sociétés accomplies

RésuméCet article propose une analyse comparative de trois mythes concernant le caractère inachevé de la personne collectés dans des sociétés insulaires d’Asie du Sud-Est. Rejetant l’hypothèse que ce thème mythique représente un archétype psychologique universel, l’analyse se focalise sur l’idée que des relations sociales et cosmologiques prototypiques doivent être établies pour qu’une personne parvienne à sa complétude. L’article démontre comment les relations sociales sont connectées aux relations cosmologiques dans cet objectif, un processus dans lequel la transformation des parties constituantes des personnes en objets de valeur joue un rôle clé. Les mythes, en ce qu’ils établissent les critères pour de tels processus de transformation, délivrent des autorisations cosmologiques pour les échanges rituels qui mènent à la reproduction complète des formes de vie humaine et végétale.AbstractThis article presents a comparative analysis of three myths about the incomplete person, recorded in insular Southeast Asian societies. Rejecting assumptions that this mythical theme represent a universal psychological archetype the analysis focuses on the question, which prototypical social and cosmological relationships need to be established in order for a person to acquire his or her completeness. It is demonstrated how to that end social relations are connected to cosmological relations, a process in which the conversion of component parts of persons into valuable objects plays a key role. By setting the standards for such conversion processes the myths articulate cosmological authorisations of the ritual exchanges leading to the reproduction of complete human and vegetable life forms

Ethnography of hope in extreme places: Ahrendt's Agora in controversial tourism destinations

In this critical review article, Isaac and Platenkamp present the case that tourism is not isolated from the world's dramatic situations in which humanity is at stake. Their argument principally centers on the devastating historical and contemporary conflict in Palestine and its relations with tourism. In this article, Isaac and Platenkamp maintain that (in relation to current happenings in Palestine) ethical and moral argumentation would be beside the point, and might even be a “cynical” exercise. They suggest that the conflict there is imbued with many kinds of normative argumentation. It is their view that positions need to be taken with regard to “Palestine,” as in all extreme circumstances, where at the same time respect for the other positions becomes crucial. In this critical review article, therefore, Arendt's idea of “agora” will be introduced, in order to create a space where these “respectful positions” can be taken in a public arena and in order to contribute to a possible peaceful development. To Isaac and Platenkamp, tourism could enable this sort of “peaceful development” and could promote or help empower conditions where violence would be excluded, and where different sorts of “argumentation” could be generated and heard about these so-called “controversial spaces.” In these respects, they maintain that tourism is a challenging field, because it has (itself) many faces—and they argue that such scenarios for “tourism” indeed could apply/should be applied for many controversial other spaces like Nepal and Burma (for instance) where (as in Palestine) the original population has no say in any economic development, such as that of tourism. But Isaac and Platenkamp recognize that (even in Burma) resistance against injustice can never be destroyed. Their own principal focus remains targeted upon Palestine, though. There, tourism is known to have “an incredibly high potential,” despite the fact that (in their view) a strong and powerful “Israeli self” indeed controls the “humiliated Palestinian other.” Thus, to our two reviewers in the Netherlands, therefore, tourism seems to be a communicative activity that might enable the implementation of Arendt's idea of and about “the agora.” Isaac and Platenkamp suggest that there is no violence in the agora, itself, because only the force of argumentation rules . . . there. (Editor's Introduction)</jats:p