Rea, J.

English

Histoire sociale / Social History (E-Journal, York University)

466 HISTOIRE SOCIALE- SOCIAL HISTORY de sage-femme n 'a plus guere de chances de pouvoir un jour exercer. Mais, se demande Helene Laforce, n'est-ce pas Ia seulement une etape dans un processus de mutation culturelle qui, depuis le XVIII• siecle, a permis aux hommes de controler les mecanismes naturels a travers le controle des sciences de Ia vie? Aujourd'hui, avec Ia fertilisation in-vitro, l'insemination artificielle, demain avec le clonage, Ia predetermination du sexe, le placenta artificiel, n'est-ce pas vers une toute autre culture de Ia naissance que nous allons? Ce n'est pas l'un des moindres merites d'Helene Laforce que d'attirer I' attention sur l'en-trecroisernent de croyances et de pratiques relevant a Ia fois de Ia rnagie et de Ia saine doctrine religieuse dans Ia culture de Ia naissance. Mais peut-Ctre aurait-il ete utile ici de penetrer davantage dans cet univers du symbole de Ia correspondance entre les choses et les etres dans ce monde de l'analogie, de Ia << sympathie >>; de meme qu' il aurait ete interessant de montrer de maniere plus precise I' ac-coucheuse «en action >>, comment elle se comportait avec le corps de Ia femme en couches :at-touchements, port d'amulettes, recitation de formules . II est vrai que parleren quelques 200 pages de I'histoire de I'accoucheuse du Quebec suppose un choix dont s'explique l'auteure: cette histoire etant << par necessite ideologique >> , elle a voulu << rendre hommage pour leur participation sociale ancienne ( ... ) aux demieres clulssesjemmes >> (p. 24). II faut souligner aussi Ia constante mise en perspective qui est faite par Helene Laforce avec Ia situation de Ia sage-femme de rnetropole. Evoquant Ia sociabilite des couches, eUe insiste sur Ia presence, plus trequente qu'en France, du cure, du mari , ou du grand-pere; sur I' habitude qui semble assez repandue d'aUer accoucher chez Ia mere ou Ia sreur. Elle fait I'hypothese interessante d'une plus grande interpenetration des roles homme/femme au Quebec : ce qui expliquerait Ia proportion relativement importante d'accouchements effectues par des hommes avant meme Ia periode de mooicalisation. Mais pourquoi a voir rejete a Ia fin de I'ouvrage le theme du controle de Ia sage-femme par I'Eglise et l'avoirsepare de Ia question de l'ondoiement traite dans Ia premiere partie, alors que Ies deux questions sont etroiternent liees? n aurait ere souhaitable egalernent d'indiquer plus clairernent et plus vite ce qui distinguait Ia matrone de Ia sage-femme : derriere les mots se cachaient effectivernent des realites (formation, exercice, univers mental) differentes. Cet ouvrage n'en restera pas moins Ia reference incontournable de tous ceux qui s'interesseront, a l'avenir, a l'histoire de Ia sage-femme et de Ia femme quebecoise. * * * Jacques GELIS Universite de Paris VII/ HOWARD PALMER- Patterns of Prejudice: A History of Nativism in Albena. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982.217 pp . It may be that we are ready for some new departures in the writing of ethnic history in Canada. Certainly, in Patterns of Prejudice, Howard Palmer has developed fully the conventional method of dealing with his topic. The strengths and the weaknesses of the genre are here. Palmer is not happy with the model of the mosaic- the official or unofficial encouragement of ethnic distinctiveness -which has made our experience different (and presumably nicer) than that of the United States. Nor is he content with the contrary notion that Canada has harboured a consistent and frequently virulent strain of prejudice to the present day. Professor Palmer prefers, as an analytic device, the concept of nativism, by which he, like John Higham in the United States, means an amalgam of nationalism and ethnic prejudice. Xeno-phobia, or old-fashioned bigotry, may thus be elevated to the status of public policy and justify dis-crimination both official and personal. So Patterns of Prejudice is a study of attitudes and behaviour COMPTES RENDUS - BOOK REVIEWS 467 in Alrerta set in the context of Alrertans' perceptions of successive immigrant groups rated as potential or perceived threats to socio-political stability . Fully two-thirds of the book deals with the peasant migration of the tum of the century, the Great War and the readjustments of the 1920s. It is, of course, for this period that the documentary and historical literature are richest. Palmer leaves no article unread, no thesis unexploited (in the best sense), to produce the fullest and most polished synthesis on this first wave of non-Anglo-Celtic migration that we yet have in print. Using his own variation on Higham's elements of nativism-Anglo-Saxonism, anti-Catholic and anti-radical- he takes us through the patterns of attitudes of the host society to the influx. Curiosity and optimism become anxiety and determination until in-security is institutionalized on the national level with the creation of the official category of the non-preferred. The impacts of the Depression of the 1930s and the World WarD are illustrations of the fluctuating fortunes of minority groups when Alrertan society is buffeted by economic and inter-national disasters. Of the three thematic lines followed, Anglo-Saxonism and anti-Catholicism have been in retreat in recent years , except for the odd maverick outburst against those pushy Hutterites and the bizarre pedagogy of Mr. Keegstra. Anti-radicalism, however, seems a persistent component of the Alrerta psyche. Dr. Palmer has concentrated on the attitudes and reactions of the majority group. There is no attempt to explore the converse complex - the attitudes of the various immigrant groups toward their hosts, or the almost unknown web of relationships among the minorities themselves. Perhaps this is the direction in which we should redirecting new research. But it will rea formidable task given the linguistic skills necessary and the frequent reluctance of some groups to bare their collective souls . But the ethnic history of Canada- despite the generally successful series sponsored by the Secretary of State - will remain incomplete without such studies. If they even approach the quality of Palmer's work we shall re well served . * * * J.E. REA University of Manitoba EMMANUEL LERoY LADURIE- La sorciere de Jasmin. Paris: Editions du Seuil, n.d. 283 pp. Few subjects have been flogged in recent years as much as that of early modem witchcraft. The present orthodoxy holds that there existed a timeless humble local witch or magician, seen through the myopic vision of the Renaissance, Reformation and the Counter-Reformation as the devil's disciple, and horribly persecuted as such from 1480 to 1670. Clothing the traditional witch in the garb of theological categories only disguised its original features, of interest to the more anthro-pologically-minded scholars of our own day. The more recent historians , such as Carlo Ginzburg and Robert Muchembled, have followed the lead of ethnologists such as Emesto de Martino (Sud e Magia, Milano, 1959) and tried to strip the village sorceress (for most of them were in fact women) of her diabolical attributes and to seize her role in the cultural framework of a pre-scientific society. The originality (yet again) of Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie consists in recourse to traditional narrative forms , in this case the folk-tale, in an attempt to extract the kernel of ethnographical reality from the heart of the myth surrounding reliefs in witchcraft in seventeenth-century Aquitaine. The source is a long poem in Gascon published by the barlx!r-poet of Agen, Jasmin (Jean-Jacques Boe), who in 1839 or 1840 heard from a peasant in nearby Roquefort the story of Fran-~ouneto, a legend which the poet recounted in the style of an operetta complete with choruses of peasants (Les Papillotos de Jasmin, Agen, 1842; reproduced in the original bilingual text, in the Sorciere de Jasmin) . As Jasmin tells it , Fran~ouneto was the village relle in Roquefort at the time 

HOWARD PALMER — Patterns of Prejudice: A History of Nativism in Alberta.

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HOWARD PALMER — Patterns of Prejudice: A History of Nativism in Alberta.

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