Émergence et éclipses dans l’anthropologie française : les trois moments de la Méditerranée

This paper presents a selective view of continuity and change in French socio-anthropological works of the last fifty years regarding Mediterranean culture and society. It distinguishes three “moments” at which local approaches to societies of the area have been gathered under a common rubric, as representing “Mediterranean” traditions or cultures. The three “moments” are the end of the colonial period (the 1950’s and 1960’s), the first half of the 1980’s, and the 1990’s. In between these “moments”, societies of the African or Asian edges have been viewed rather as “Moslem”, "Arab” or “underdeveloped” societies of “the Middle East”, thus detached from those of the European northern edge, so that the area seen as “Mediterranean” is mostly reduced to islands and peninsulas. Comparison of the thematics of the three “moments” illustrates the sensibility of research to political and historical contexts, reflecting western views of a common Mediterranean substrate as well as the evolution of the local societies themselves.Métral Françoise. Émergence et éclipses dans l’anthropologie française : les trois moments de la Méditerranée . In: Méditerranée : Ruptures et Continuités. Actes du colloque tenu à Nicosie les 20-22 octobre 2001, Université Lumière-Lyon 2, Université de Chypre. Lyon : Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux, 2003. pp. 21-33. (Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient méditerranéen, 37