Laboratory of Cultural and Social Anthropology

Fields | Projects and contracts | Collaborations | Events |

Research directions

Raison sacrificielle et rapports homme-animal

Cette recherche se concentre sur le déclin de la raison sacrificielle dans la société moderne (notamment le déni de toute dimension symbolique, particulièrement cannibale, en son sein et dont la crise de la «vache folle» a rappelé néanmoins la sourde présence). Ce déclin met à nu toute une série de problèmes (rapport à l'animal, rapport à la nature, rapport à la catastrophe, rapport au lien social, rapport à l'altérité) dont la raison économique et purement rationnelle n'arrive pas à traiter et qui se traduit par une forte crise non seulement dans le système alimentaire, mais également dans le système de la santé et de la prévoyance, dans le système politique de décision, de prise de risque et de gestion de la catastrophe

Recherches effectuées par le passé

2002-2003. Responsable d'une enquête (élaboration et analyse du questionnaire, valorisation des résultats), en collaboration avec Kai Arras, Laboratoire des systèmes autonomes, EPFL, portant sur les attentes liées à la robotique, destinée au public d'Expo.02 (2000 personnes interrogées). Financement: 12'000, UNIL et EPFL

2001-2002 Enquête portant sur l'immortalité et les développements techniques qui peuvent y contribuer. En collaboration avec le Musée d'histoire naturelle de Neuchâtel, dans le cadre de leur exposition « la grande illusion » (650 personnes interrogées)

1998-2002. Participation à une recherche financée par le Fonds National Suisse de la Recherche Scientifique (recherche FNRS No 12-55445.98, division 1), portant sur «la société de l'information: la nouvelle frontière?»

1998-2003. Enquête ethnographique auprès d'ingénieurs impliqués dans la fabrication d'implants - ou de tout objet technique potentiellement implantable - et de robots (terrain pour la thèse de doctorat)

1995. Recherche de terrain en Italie, dans le cadre du 3ème cycle romand d'ethnologie portant sur « Identité, nation et relations interculturelles en Istrie (Croatie, Italie, Slovénie) »

Les modèles de fabrication de l'humain dans les cultures et dans le discours anthropologique

Ce programme vise à questionner les fondements du discours anthropologique. Il se penche sur l'histoire de la discipline, réfléchit sur les modalités de construction de l'objet anthropologique et sur les formes de textualisation, et questionne la pertinence des modèles et des concepts élaborés par la discipline. Le volet actuel de la recherche s'intéresse à l'anthropopoiésis (aux Figures de l'humain) dans son double aspect : les modèles de l'humain fabriqués par les cultures et les modèles de l'humain construits par la théorie anthropologique. Recherche effectuée dans le cadre d'une équipe internationale de chercheurs des Universités de Paris, Milan, Pavie, Turin et Lausanne
Dernières publications du groupe : - Figure dell'umano. Le rappresentazione dell'antropologia, Roma : Meltemi, 2005;
- Sogetto, persona e fabbricazzione dell'identità. Casi antropologici e concetti filosofici, avec S. Barberani, S. Borutti, C. Calame, C. Mattalucci, L.Vanzago, Milano, Mimesis, 2015.

Processes of cultural heritage formation and national identity building in the context of the Near East

General themes:
- The social itineraries of material objects and the metamorphosis of meaning and function they undergo during their existence
- The history of museographic practices in the Euro-American cultural tradition and in non western societies
- The issue of cultural objects repatriation
- The processes of collective memory construction
- The relations between history, memory and tradition
- History teaching in the school
- The social construction of borders, political and cultural, internal and external

Specific themes related to the context of my fieldwork in Jordan:
- The practices of cultural heritage related to the processes of nation building and the construction of ethnic identities in the context of the Near East
- The formation of private collections in Jordan and the Palestinian territories
- The birth and development of museographic practices in the Arab world
- The history of Near Eastern archaeology since the end of the ottoman era
- Political and cultural practices related to the definition of cultural heritage during colonial time
- The process of definition of ethnic minorities in Jordan
- The relationships between the Jordanian post-colonial State and "civil society"
- The dialogue between the State and private collectors in Jordan
- The connections between neo-tribal logics and the State in Jordan
- The transformations of the Palestinian collective memory among the diaspora in Jordan
- The relations between private collections and autobiographies among Palestinian living in Jordan

Latin America: Afro-descendant communites

PhD Thesis Proposal

'Engaging Blacks in the Colombian Peace Process. Afro-descendant Communities, Territories and Autonomy: Claims for a Bottom-Up Peacebuilding.'

In 2012, the Colombian government began meeting with the FARC-EP (Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia) leadership in La Havana, Cuba, to negotiate a new-and supposedly final-peace agreement. Analogous dialogues are also advancing with the ELN (National Liberation Army), the second largest Colombian left-wing insurgent group. The political circumstances resulting from the peace process have sparked the emergence of social movements that are engaged in the construction of a post-conflict society. Among these movements we find the black population, which in Colombia faces a historical marginalization and is now seeing the peace process as a space where to claim its right to self-determination.
The Ph.D. project I propose aims to analyze the participation and the role played by the Afro-descendant communities in the peace talks. I'll focus on their claim for autonomy and the discussion about the exploitation of the natural resources lying in their ancestral territories, nowadays controlled by the guerrilla. As the effort of understanding of peace processes is too often limited to the examination of the agreements between governments and insurgent groups, my bottom-up analysis will make a contribution towards the comprehension of how communities act to shape their future in such contexts of political transition.

Anthropologie économique: don (Mauss), échange, réciprocité

Converging technologies

Egalité des chances entre femmes et hommes

Nouvelles technologies de l'information

Violence extrême

La violence extrême est ici analysée du point de vue de la raison sacrificielle. Réfutant l'idée de la "naturalité" de la violence, cette recherche se concentre sur l'analyse d'un certain nombre de pratiques extrêmes (guerres, génocides, exclusions), des plus historiques aux plus contemporaines. Elle tente de montrer que la violence la plus extrême, notamment celle pratiquée dans le cadre de la guerre "totale" et du génocide, renvoie nécessairement à une certaine idée du sacrifice, un sacrifice absolu et sans reste dans le cas particulier. Dans le même mouvement, la violence extrême nous éclaire sur la raison sacrificielle et sur ce qui la fonde, à savoir une violence qui peut monter, là encore, jusqu'aux extrêmes. Une telle ascension à l'extrême n'est pas seulement agissante dans le cadre de la violence extraordinaire (génocide, purification ethnique), mais également dans celui de la violence ordinaire (pauvreté, exclusion sociale, violence domestique et de genre, violence politique).
Publications sur le sujet : Guerre et sacrifice. La violence extrême, Paris: PUF, 2006; «Violence extrême. L'anthropologie face aux massacres de masse», in F. Saillant (dir.), Réinventer l'anthropologie , Montréal : Liber, 2009

Les modèles confessionnels et les politiques de sécularité en Europe et ailleurs

Les différentes affaires du «voile islamique» ont mis en évidence une certaine crise des modèles de la laïcité jusqu'ici en vigueur en Europe. Cette recherche tente tout d'abord de mesurer la diversité des modèles de laïcité en Europe, leurs singularités respectives, et ensuite la manière dont ils réagissent aux nouvelles hétérogénéités religieuses, mais aussi sociales, ethniques, linguistiques et sexuelles qui marquent aujourd'hui la société. Elle réfléchit enfin sur la catégorie de "religion" pour en questionner la pertinence du point de vue de l'histoire et de l'analyse scientifique.
Dernière publicartion sur le thème : "La religion dans la sphère du civil. Une critique du désenchantement", Esprit, février 2011.

Cyborg

Enquête ethnographique dans le département de cybernétique de l'Université de Reading, UK, dans lequel a eu lieu la première expérience d'implant connecté au système nerveux d'un humain non handicapé (observation participante dans le laboratoire, entretiens avec le personnel et les étudiants, participation aux enseignements, etc.)

Evaluation des enjeux éthiques et sociaux liés aux implants en collaboration avec Kevin Warwick, professeur dans le département, à qui l'implant a été greffé

Practices and discourses of childbirth in Jordan

- The natal system before the colonial time
- The role of the dayya (traditional birth attendant)
- The medicalization of pregnancy and birth during the colonial period and the cinseuqent westernization of the local natal system
- The role of traditional midwives in the ancient natal system
- The role of qualified midwives in the contemporary medical system
- The power relationships in the maternity wards among physicians, midwives and women giving birth
- The role of women during the birth process
- The narratives of women's experience of pregnancy and birth
- The differences between State's medical system and private medical sector in the managing of pregnancy and birth
- The role attributed to prenatal care by Jordanian women of different social level
- Knowledge and attitudes of Jordanian women towards pregnancy and birth according to their social status
- The influence of international organizations and local and international NGOs in shaping the local notions of pregnancy and birth
- The effects of the introduction of western notions such as "reproductive health" among Jordanian women
- The policies of the post-colonial State in the domain of reproductive health
- The State's policies of birth control and their acceptance by the Jordanian women
- Islamic reactions towards the medicalization of the natal system and the introduction of western notions about pregnancy and birth
- The transformations of family structures generated by the new management of pregnancy and birth
- The social role of women in the process of procreation and reproduction
- The relations between sexuality and procreation among Jordanian women
- The perception of the body during

Epistemological issues

- The epistemological and rhetorical categories used in the anthropological works
- The common places or topoi typical of the ethnographic description
- The representation of time and space
- The ethnographic encounter
- The relation between the ethnographer's knowledge and that of his/her informants
- The epistemological and political stakes of fieldwork with a specific attention for the Arab world

The emergence of an actor in the public space. A comparative approach to the Islamic field in Switzerland

Within the framework of the Swiss PNR58 « Religion State and Society », co-applicant in the FNS project (Swiss National Science Foundation) on Islam in Switzerland together with Mounia Bennani-Chraïbi, Associated Professor at the Institute of political and international studies at the University of Lausanne. The project The emergence of an actor in the public space. A comparative approach to the structure of the Islamic field in Switzerland (L'émergence d'un acteur dans l'espace public. Une approche comparative de la structuration du champ islamique en Suisse) will be funded for the period 2007-2010 (350'998 CHF).
The main topics of the project are the following:
- The analysis of competition and alliance among the Islamic actors in Switzerlarnd
- The nature of their interactions with the State authorities at both the cantonal and the federal level.
- Public perceptions of controversies emerging in the media concerning the actors of Islam in Switzerland
- The transnational dimension characterizing the above-mentioned actors

PhD

Chinese migrations and diasporas: the Chinese in French Polynesia.

The designation "Chinese in French Polynesia" comes up against the plurality of contemporary identifications of the descendants of Chinese who immigrated to this French colony in the South Pacific at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, in the context of one of human history's greatest waves of migration. What this simple juxtaposition of names conveys is a vision of Polynesian society that is in reality only one political possibility among others. My work shows how the place of the Chinese minority in Polynesian society and what "Chinese in French Polynesia" means have varied in relation to the changes in the relationship between the colonial territory (now an Overseas Country within the French Republic) and its metropole, as well as changes in the world system.
Between 1999 and 2004, I worked on the French colonial and Chinese associative archives, I conducted participant observation at associative and political meetings, and conducted over a hundred biographical interviews. I analysed the reshaping of the Chinese associative and political field according to local power struggles and global geopolitics. I retraced the changes in economic and domestic organization and in gender relations resulting from the transnational situation and adjustment to successive conjunctures. I showed the differentiation that has taken place among the third generation, with a tendency for identifications to be local or cosmopolitan, based, respectively, on the hierarchization or juxtaposition of ethnic affiliations and stereotypes.

This research was followed by two field revisits in 2008 and 2013, and was published as a book (Chinese in French Polynesia, Migration, métissage, diaspora) and in several articles.

Heritage and museums in China and Taiwan

During my postdoctoral year at the Institute of Ethnology of Academia Sinica in 2005-2006, I conducted an ethnography of the creation of a "hakka culture hall" (kejia wenhuaguan) in a locality in northern Taiwan. This museum was opened as part of a policy to promote the Hakka minority as part of Taiwanese government's multicultural policy. I conducted an ethnography of the administrative and museographical practices involved in the development of this project in order to analyse the ongoing process of heritagization, while contributing to a political anthropology of the state. I examined how the convergence between a project promoted from above, by the state and the district government (xian), and a search for recognition by local artists, at the county level (xiang), gave rise to an exhibition of Hakka literature and music in an original form, closely resembling ancestral halls, while respecting the museum standards set by the state.

This research led to the publication of a special issue of Musée du quai Branly journal Gradhiva in 2012, co-edited with Brigitte Baptandier.

Chinese globalization: diasporic connexions in Shenzhen

From 2011 to 2017, I conducted field research with emigration communities in the Pearl Delta region of Guangdong province, South China. Reversing the approach adopted for my doctoral research (see below), the aim was to examine the reconnexions that have taken place between the Chinese diaspora and China since its reopening. Emigration communities are understood as actors of Chinese globalization, and not simply as receivers of foreign investment. The transnational connections they re-establish involve kinship, in particular lineage ties, with emigrants and their descendants. Kinship is thus a resource used by the actors in local projects. It is also a thread that allows addressing China's social, economic and political changes in globalization as they take place on the ground.

The results of this research are published in several articles and in a book: Pour la cause de l'ancêtre, Relation diasporique et transformations d'un village globalisé, Shenzhen, China (Nanterre: Société d'ethnologie, 2019).

Patrimoine et gestion du multiculturalisme en Malaisie et à Singapour

A la suite de l'inscription des villes historiques du Strait Settlements, George Town et Malacca, sur la liste de l'UNESCO, cette recherche vise à étudier les manières dont la diversité ethnique, religieuse et culturelle est gérée dans ces deux villes de la Malaisie avec un autre point de comparaison qui est Singapour. Elle s'intéresse également aux enjeux économiques et touristiques que de telles politiques suscitent ainsi qu'aux différentes actions de la société civile qu'elles mobilisent.
Dernière publication sur le thème: «Multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism and making heritage in Malaysia. A view from the historic cities of the Straits of Malacca», International Journal of Heritage Studies (avec F. Graezer Bideau), vol. 18, No 6 : 605-623, 2011

Giving birth at CHUV. The experience of couples from childbirth classes to their return back home

June 2011-June 2013, fieldwork research at the Department of obstetrics and gynaecology of the University Hospital of the Canton of Vaud (CHUV) in Switzerland. The research project intends to study the experience of parents who give birth in the mentioned institution, focusing on their itinerary from childbirth classes to the end of their hospital stay. The main topics the research intends to treat are the following:
- The narratives and emotional experience of the (prospective) parents throughout their itinerary within the hospital
- The narratives of birth attendants -midwives and obstetricians gynaecologists
- The influence of the institutional organisation of care on the quality of the actors' experience -including birth attendants and parents
- The impact of dominant cultural representations on behaviours and attitudes among birth attendants and parents
- The effects of childbirth classes on parents' behaviours and attitudes during the delivery and towards breastfeeding

Other Modernities: Patrimony and Practices of Visual Expression Outside the West

February 2013 - January 2016, I am co-ordinating with Wendy Shaw (University of Bern, co-applicant) and Silvia Naef (University of Geneva, main applicant) the Sinergia project Other Modernities: Patrimony and Practices of Visual Expression Outside the West (CRSII1_141909), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (1.333.605 CHF), http://www.other-modernities.com.
1. Project Summary
Bringing together specialists in the fields of Anthropology, Middle Eastern Studies, and Art History, this project considers the historiography of arts in the non-West as part of worldwide processes of modernization. Rather than conceiving of the non-Western present against the backdrop of supposedly authentic, homogenous, and undiluted traditions, this project focuses on the historiographic construction of art and visual culture as intertwined agents and expressions of sociopolitical modernization. It proposes art and performance as parallel arenas through which cultural identity comes to be perceived neither as a search for roots nor a striving for Westernization, but as a process of coming-into-being within a framework of shifting cultural and political hegemonies.
The notion of modernity as phenomenon that destroys the present in order to build a new future -- a tabula rasa phenomenon completely opposed to tradition - is particularly complicated in the case of non-Western settings. Whereas in the West, where the conceptualization of 'the modern' as a post- Enlightenment project of utopian rationality responded against existing traditions, sublimating them into new forms, elsewhere modernization was often understood as erasing local culture in favor of a template borrowed from the West. For example, in much of the Arab world of the early twentieth century, the word ruwwad, pioneers, was used to designate modern artists, as if they were acting in a barren desert rather than in an already rich and vital cultural context. Historiographies of non-Western arts have often followed such a model, viewing artistic production as a bel

Competences

Evaluation des enjeux sociaux et éthiques

Evaluation des enjeux sociaux et éthiques liés au développement des nouvelles technologies de l'information, de la robotique et des "converging technologies"
Mise en relation de ces enjeux avec le développement de produits et la recherche (expertises pour l'Union européenne ou interventions dans différents centres de formation et entreprises)