Documents found
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112.More information
AbstractThe Ecological Riche Against the Ecosystem and the Neglected Intervention of Technical FactsReferences to the concept of ecosystem dominate ecological anthropology, but this " centripetal " approach (in so far as it begins with delimiting a spatiotemporal boundary and proceeds with an analysis of its content) is not without shortcomings and it appears that, far from encouraging interdisciplinary cooperation, it has rather inhibited it to the extent that it has frozen the spurious antagonism between the symbolic coherence of ethnoscience and the biological coherence of a more materialist oriented ecology. The notion of ecological niche introduces a " centrifugal " dynamic that starts with elementary relations and elaborates on boundaries only with regards to a specifie problem wnen interpreting the material. This notion challenges human ecology by reminding thé importance of technical facts, a domain of interventions as central as those associated with living organisms or representations yet too often neglected. Illustrations from the forest of Central Africa are provided in conclusion.Key words : Guille-Escuret, biocœnosis, ecosystem, ecological niche, culturel technology. Central African forest
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114.More information
Two moments lie at the genesis of this article: the sense in the current Haitian vernacular attributed to the terms “Negro,” “African,” and “Citizen,” as well as the distinction between “Citizens” and “Africans” observed in certain texts relevant to the abolition of slavery in 1793 and 1794. The author reviews the use of the word African by the actors dominating the political scene during the Haitian Revolution. He shows how their use of this term raises an important issue of identity and nationality, relevant for social status not only for former slaves but for all the native-born. Mulatto chiefs claimed no African origins and relegated the term “African” for farmers, meant in a defamatory way. Black leaders kept their African origin quiet and were as ruthless as the mulatto chiefs against the farmers. These elites perpetuated a negative image of the African. Current nativist thought has tried, since the beginning of the twentieth century, to rehabilitate the image of the African in the eyes of the Haitian, but its revision of history is not scientific, as it is impossible to make the black leaders of the revolution the representatives of the farmers.
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116.More information
Changes in the environment due to global causes, such as global warming, or local causes, such as mining, affect several Andean populations, such as the Q'ero (Peruvian Andes). The issues involved lead to numerous controversies in both the political and academic fields. Although links exist for example between the scientific discourse on climate change and the observations of native populations concerning their ecological environment, numerous players with specific realities coexist. Based on a political ontology approach, this article intends to show that there are not only different points of view concerning the expected solutions but, at a far earlier stage, different ways of understanding the factors involved, their causes and their influences. Indeed, only a part of the problem can be clearly shown by means of the conceptual dichotomy between nature and culture or, in other words, physical facts and cultural interpretations. In such controversial situations, strict and impervious dualisms do not last long.
Keywords: Cometti, changement climatique, extraction minière, Q'ero, Autochtones, Andes péruviennes, relations entre humains et non-humains, ontologie politique, Cometti, climate change, mining extraction, Q'ero, Indigenous People, Peruvian Andes, relationship between human and non-human beings, political ontology, Cometti, cambio climático, extracción minera, Q'ero, Indígenas, Andes peruanos, relaciones entre humanos y no humanos, ontología política
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117.More information
The microbial shock of the Indians in the face of their great vulnerability to diseases, of which smallpox was the most dreadful, is well known but usually underestimated and here reflected upon by the author. Nations disappeared; many groups were reconstituted while, at the same time, interracial groups appeared and developed rapidly. This factor was also largely underestimated. Finally, the author underlines the options that have been made available to Metis for ages: become White, assert themselves as Metis or assimilate into an Indian community. He begins his observations with the 1492 encounter and ends his analysis with the 1982 Constitutional Act.
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118.More information
Through the study of the monthly rituals to their gods, the author examins the relationships between society, subsistence and ideology among the Aztecs of Precolombian Mexico.