Search Results

If ICTs have raised great hopes, it is not because they offer any magic formula. To obtain real profit from these new technologies, it is necessary to have as realistic a vision as possible of their potential benefits and drawbacks. Indeed, they force us to consider cultural and ethical issues even more closely. Evils and their remedies are to be found in culture itself.

In 18th century French Louisiana and the Upper Country, there were numerous and varied interactions between Native Peoples and French soldiers. This article studies the nature, role and realities of their material exchanges, using the several sources available (archival documents, printed works or archaeological reports). After having enumerated the different items traded and determined their use, the author examines how the trade was organized. The pre-eminent role of the officers is pointed out as well as the soldiers’ more modest one. It is argued that there were many real interdependencies which modified everyone’s habits and contributed to the solidarity existing between French soldiers and their Native neighbours.

This article presents the multiple meanings of a process of religious change that involves a large part of the colla population that live in the region of ravines known as quebradas and the high Andean plateau called puna of the province of Jujuy, in northwestern Argentina. The author exposes the links between traditional aspects of colla society and worldview and those elements introduced by new religious options. Despite the continuities that can be seen between old and new elements, the process as a whole can be interpreted as a de-ethnifying trend which can be better understood in the light of the opposition between ethnic group and nation.

The socio-spatial segmentation and the crisis in the processes of socio-ethnic reproduction in Media Luna (La Guajira) allow us to understand the transition of the Wayuu towards a dependence on neoliberal assistance. From the ethnographies carried out between 1998 and 2018, it is argued that the process of socio-spatial segmentation originates from the reduction and fixation in the territory and the neoliberal policies of multicultural recognition. Its consequences are 1) that the new socio-spatial units no longer have the material means for subsistence and depend on salaried work and institutional supply; and 2) that ruptures are generated in the bonds of solidarity, collaboration and complementarity for mutual support and internal conflicts due to competition for institutional resources and equipment.

Keywords: transitions vers le capitalisme, dépendance, autonomie relative, reproduction socio-ethnique, segmentation sociospatiale, Wayuu

Free-form satire, emancipated from strictly Horatian / Juvenalian models, and organized around a poetic “I”, distant, critical or even indignant before a changing world, played an important role in the emergence of news writing in Early Modernity, leading to the onset of the periodical press in the 17th century. In order to reflect on the connection between Early Modern information media, and satirical or militant writing, the idiom “fake news”, while seemingly incongruous at first, is in fact particularly useful, as it helps establish a connection with our contemporary practices, such as incorrect news, ideologically-oriented publications, clickbaits, and ironic parodies. By comparing these apparently heterogeneous phenomena, it becomes possible to think, in a coordinated way, about three aspects of the exchanges and hybridization that took place between Early Modern “occasionnels” (short, topical brochures) and “libelles” (satirical or libellous tracts). Like contemporary “fake news”, a term often used by purveyors of equally debatable reports to decry doubtful information produced by the opposing camp, libelles were always entangled in a network of other libelles, ever expending due to the indignation caused by the enemy’s lies. Libelles imitated news writing, feeding on rumors, and led to demystifications that often doubled as critiques of the codes of topicality found in the occasionnels. In certain ways, such criticism contributed to the creation of these codes, by pushing back against them. The forms taken by this satire of ideologically-oriented, or militant news writing went beyond partisan intent; it was sometimes difficult, as it is nowadays on certain satirical websites or social media accounts, to distinguish between activist creative writings, and playful games of wit. At a deeper level, satirical esthetics, whether grotesque (referring to the whole period) or burlesque (referring to its end), could instigate a global exercise of incredulity or unbelief towards the religious and political foundations of the Ancien Régime. On account of such a meta-reflexive dimension, of its great diversity linked to its hybridization of news writings, of its oscillation between partisan and playful humour, depending on the readership’s liking and the publishing industry’s interests, libelle referred to changeable forms quite similar to the fickle realities the moniker fake news refers to nowadays. Conversely, the libelle invites us not to hastily reject one aspect or another of the current network, which might be more homogeneous than it seems at first sight.

Language teaching policies in France are still defined uncompetitively by the state. Yet officials from both the central and the local services are often led to cooperate with actors from outside the Department of Education. Such cooperation is rather akin to some ill-controlled outsourcing for most of the teaching of Dutch as a foreign language and to some pervasive interference with the teaching of West Flemish as a regional language. This article aims to analyze the influence of actors from Flemish and Dutch organizations and authorities on the setting of a specific educational offer in a French area with which the nationalist imaginary as well as a form of economic and political pragmatism are embedded.

Keywords: coopération internationale, Éducation nationale, Flandre, Pays-Bas, département français du Nord, nationalisme, langue, dialecte, international cooperation, Department of Education, Flanders, the Netherlands, French department of Nord, nationalism, language, dialect

Research Framework: In a context characterized by new possibilities for parenthood within societies where family structures are becoming increasingly diverse, the issue of knowing one's origins is currently provoking intense political, social and scientific debates. These debates are emblematic of a more general movement that reflects a growing interest in the question of origins within contemporary patterns of family configuration, whether created by adoption or assisted reproduction . The concept of origins is thus a particularly relevant window shedding light on current social and political issues surrounding the future of adoption, the conditions for assisted reproduction through donation, the legislative framework of surrogacy and the application of biogenetic knowledge, as well as an opportunity to analyze contemporary reconfigurations of kinship and family links. Objectives: To identify the primary issues underlying the discourse on personal origins by outlining the context from which it emerged, and by bringing together the various disciplinary approaches to define its parameters. Methodology: This article is based on the various authors' contributions in this issue, as well as on theoretical and empirical studies that show how the concept of origins is used by those involved in adoption and assisted reproduction . The comparative perspective is chosen for this article. Results: The focus on origins reveals a profound evolution linked to the growing dissociation of procreation from kinship, which appear to be leading to the emergence of "new" relationships and actors. The rapid advancement of reproductive technologies is broadening the circumstances, already present in adoption, in which people have children but do not become parents in the legal sense, remaining "at the edges" of kinship. Conclusions: The concept of origins provides a particularly rich field for examining current representations and interpretations of the individuals associated with it (birth "parents" in adoption, egg and sperm donors, women who have carried a child for others), the narratives that shape them, and the place they occupy (or their absence) in the accounts of those who are adopted or are born through surrogacy. Contribution: This article brings a theoretical and heuristic approach to the concept of origins and demonstrates its relevance for examining the multiple relational realities created by current family arrangements. The articles in this issue all contribute to this examination by reflecting in complementary ways on the question of parentage.

Keywords: origines, filiation, parenté, adoption, technologies de la reproduction, origins, filiation, parenting, adoption, reproductive technologies

What we take for granted, or as common understanding, is actually conceptualized throughout our lives, through a process of internalizing ideologies. People on the fringes of society also internalize dominant ideologies, even when those ideologies go against to their own interests. This phenomenon, widely described in literature and felt by Indigenous Peoples, demonstrates a general tendency to under-specialize experiential, local and cultural knowledge, while favoring techno professional knowledge. The field of mental health is no stranger to this type of practice, wherein Indigenous knowledge – particularly that of the Inuit - is largely absent. Based on literature and the author's experiences as a social worker and doctoral researcher in mental health in Nunavik, this article explores some of the mechanisms that obscure Indigenous knowledge in mental health, while looking at the specific context of Nunavik, Québec.

Keywords: santé mentale, colonialité, injustice épistémique, Inuit, autochtone, mental health, coloniality, epistemic injustice, Inuit, Indigenous