As esculturas cokwe como respostas às assimetrias civilizacionais

Fundada em 1917, a Companhia de Diamantes de Angola (Diamang) ocupava uma vasta região da Lunda Norte e Lunda Sul. Além das ações voltadas para a exploração de diamantes, essa empresa concessionária constituiu em 1936 o Museu do Dundo, um espaço destinado a colecionar objetos relacionados, sobretudo, aos povos que habitavam a sua área de atuação. Os objetivos cada vez mais ambiciosos e o receio da extinção de uma arte reminiscente do “tempo tribal” levaram o Museu do Dundo a organizar não apenas expedições de recolhas de objetos, mas também a contratar e manter “protegidos” em seus domínios escultores de madeira e de marfim a fim de evitar que as transformações ocasionadas pela situação colonial influenciassem os trabalhos desses homens. Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar algumas reflexões sobre como os anseios fictícios do Museu em relação a esses escultores foram fundamentais para compreender as constantes tensões e dificuldades em enquadrar em seu espaço não apenas esses próprios homens, mas também as suas produções.The Companhia de Diamantes de Angola (Diamang) was founded in 1917 and occupied a vast region of Lunda’s north and south areas. Aside from the activities around diamond mining this concessionary company also created a museum in 1936. The Museu do Dundo (Dundo Museum) was a space dedicated to collect objects related to the inhabitants who lived in the area exploited by the company. The increasingly ambitious objectives of the Museum and the concern regarding the disappearance of a reminiscent art from “tribal times” resulted not only in the organization of collecting expeditions but also in the recruitment and “protection” of wood and ivory sculptors inside the company’s domains to avoid that their work were influenced by changes caused by the colonialism. The main objective of this paper is to present some considerations regarding how the museum’s fictitious expectations regarding these sculptors were crucial to understand the continuous tensions and difficulties faced to accommodate not only these men but also their work in its space

L'homme, les forêts et le passé en Afrique

Man, the Forests, and the Past in Africa This contribution examines the relationship throughout recorded history of the rainforest environment in Africa and humanity to conclude that at each stage the "environment" is a sum of biotopes mainly produced by mankind. Tropical forests are "humanized" environments; humanized through a dialectical interaction between extremely complex biotopes and several millienia of human activity following the introduction of farming in these areas.Vansina Jan. L'homme, les forêts et le passé en Afrique. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 40ᵉ année, N. 6, 1985. pp. 1307-1334

Le phénomène bantou et les savants

Many scholars of different subjects have studied and are still carrying on research on the question of Bantu expansion. The historiography of this question is a good example of the problems that are raised by interdisciplinary research. 1’he inquiries in linguistics and in archaeology have brought out the essential elements, but the results were compared without much questioning whether the comparison was relevant or not, for specialists of one discipline are often ill informed about the results and the practice of others, the basic data are not yet equally available, though in itself the interdisciplinary synthesis hides that gap. The fundamental questions deriving from the link of these various research fields have not been deeply studied. The study of modem periods, which could benefit from the contributions of other subjects besides linguistics and archaeology, has up to now been neglected.De nombreux savants de disciplines différentes ont étudié et étudient la question de l’expansion bantoue. L’historiographie de cette question constitue un bel exemple des problèmes posés par les recherches interdisciplinaires. La linguistique et l’archéologie ont apporté les sources essentielles, mais on a comparé ces résultats sans trop se demander si la comparaison était licite ; or les spécialistes d’une discipline sont toujours mal informés de la valeur des résultats et de la pratique des autres, les données de base sont encore trop inégales même si le caractère d’une synthèse interdisciplinaire cache cette faille, les questions fondamentales découlant de la problématique n’ont pas été creusées, on a négligé jusqu’ici l’étude des époques récentes, bien que celles-ci puissent bénéficier de l’apport de disciplines autres que la linguistique et l’archéologie.Vansina Jan. Le phénomène bantou et les savants. In: 2000 ans d’histoire africaine. Le sol, la parole et l’écrit. Mélanges en hommage à Raymond Mauny. Tome I. Paris : Société française d'histoire d'outre-mer, 1981. pp. 495-503. (Bibliothèque d'histoire d'outre-mer. Études, 5-6-1

Une recension imparfaite : un cas de parti pris

Vansina I. J. Une recension imparfaite : un cas de parti pris. In: Cahiers d'études africaines, vol. 17, n°66-67, 1977. pp. 369-373

Laburthe-Tolra (Philippe) : Les seigneurs de la forêt : Essai sur le passé historique, l'organisation sociale et les normes éthiques des anciens Beti du Cameroun ; Gaulme (François) : Le pays de Cama : Un ancien état côtier du Gabon et ses origines

Vansina Jan. Laburthe-Tolra (Philippe) : Les seigneurs de la forêt : Essai sur le passé historique, l'organisation sociale et les normes éthiques des anciens Beti du Cameroun ; Gaulme (François) : Le pays de Cama : Un ancien état côtier du Gabon et ses origines. In: Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer, tome 69, n°254, 1er trimestre 1982. pp. 71-72

Comment reconstituer la société batéké de la fin du XIXe siècle

The way of life of the Tio (Oriental Batéké) towards the end of the XIXth century can be described by using both written and oral data. Among the writings spécial care was given to vocabularies of the period as they hâve retained the memory of many an observation that was neglected in reports, letters, memoires, travelogues, etc. Oral data complément the writings very well in so far as one can reconstitute a fairly correct chronology dating the events or the descriptions given by the informants. This has proven possible. It also became apparent that the sampling procedure to find the best informants led to a serious study first of present day social structure. The mix of sources has allowed us to describe this society from 1889 to 1892 with sufficient précision for the normal use of the analytical techniques of social anthropology.Le mode de vie des Tio (Batéké orientaux) vers la fin du xixe siècle peut être décrit grâce à un ensemble de sources écrites et orales. Parmi les premières une attention particulière fut portée aux vocabulaires d'époque qui ont conservé le souvenir de mainte observation négligée dans les rapports, lettres, mémoires, récits de voyages. Les documents oraux complètent très heureusement les écrits pourvu que l'on puisse reconstituer une chronologie assez exacte datant les événements ou les descriptions du passé donnés par les informateurs. Cela s'est avéré possible. Il s'est avéré aussi que l'échantillonage pour trouver les informateurs les plus qualifiés a présupposé une étude sérieuse des structures sociales actuelle. La combinaison des sources permet de décrire cette société de 1880 à 1892 avec une précision suffisante pour l'application des techniques analytiques de l'anthropologie sociale aux faits recouverts.Vansina Jan. Comment reconstituer la société batéké de la fin du XIXe siècle. In: Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer, tome 57, n°208, 3e trimestre 1970. pp. 253-267