How to understand the concept of "landscape" in a society with no words to say it? The case of Mayotte Island in the Indian Ocean

International audienceOn Mayotte Island, a French department since 2011, the majority native language is Shimaore, a Bantou language, and the second most spoken language is Shibushi, of Malagasy origins. In these two local languages, the word “landscape” does not exist. In Shimaore, the closest words are “oulanga” to talk about a natural environment, “voihano” meaning “place” and “hawa”, which translates to “atmosphere” but also is used to talk about time and climate. If we refer to the typical meaning of the concept of “landscape,” including its aesthetic connotation (Berque et al, 1994; Roger, 1997.), Mayotte is not a society with landscape identity. Recent work on landscape provide new thoughts on the concept, such as the “ordinary landscape” or the “sensorial landscape” (Paupert, 2011; Manola, 2012). To understand if the Maore people have a relation to “landscape” we carried out more than 300 short interviews with inhabitants in their native languages and eight long, semi-structured interviews with Maore who have the local and French cultures. For the short interviews, participants described their preferred and non-preferred places on the island. Results show that the Maore have a close connection with the island’s landscapes are immersed with their five senses. Their descriptions were coded to help define the Maore landscape: 48% of descriptions present an emotional link to “landscape”, 50% incorporate memories, 45% concretely or figuratively mention their body, and 23% have a spiritual dimension