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“Métissages” or Cross-cultural hybridities: practices, people, concepts
| Location: | France |
| Call for Papers Date: | 2011-09-21 (Archive) |
| Date Submitted: |
2010-12-23 |
| Announcement ID: |
181638 |
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The French word « métissage » is part of contemporary political discourse as well as everyday language. But the French word also refers to a specific concept in social sciences, which is a matter for debate among anthropologists and sociologists, and is also used in a less well-defined way by historians and geographers.
In its widest use, « métissage » refers to the meeting and mixing of individuals, practices or traditions initially related to different ethnic groups, with ethnicity being defined, in N. Zemon's words, as « pertaining to memory, history, language, customs, marriage rules, and open to incessant change » (Métissage culturel et méditation historique, XVIIth Marc Bloch Conference, June 13th, 1995). After a long history, the word is always used in divergent meanings. For Jean-Loup Amselle for instance, the term, linked in the XIXst century to a blood mixing, seems too near to the biology and supposes that there is « pure cultures » (Branchements, Anthropologie de l’universalité des cultures, Flammarion, 2001, p.1). Georges Balandier on his side insist rather on « the fecundity of the mixing, the « métissage », the intern and extern acculturation », the word expressing also « cultural vitality » (Civilisés, dit-on, PUF, 2003, p. 113-114)
Touching as it does upon the oppositions between nature and nurture, and self and other, the word raises deep questions for social sciences, especially as its use may lead to an over-emphasis of « natural » factors or interesting result in decentring. While the word was fairly commonly used in the 1980s, it now seems to be questioned, on the basis that it may implicitly stand in opposition to some notion of « purity », or serve as a kind of all-purpose concept. Yet the processes it refers to are still crucially relevant to the analysis of societies.
The conference intends to re-address the concept of « métissage », to discuss the themes and notions that are conjured − deliberately or not− by the use of the word, and to work out the conditions in which it can be turned into an operational concept for social sciences.
We shall expect papers to offer practical and contextualized approaches of the notion, rooted in living experiences and accounts of hybrid/cross-cultural practices, but also to help to work out a conceptual understanding of the notion and its limits. We are particularly interested in papers attempting to deal with the (in)visibility of the notion, by addressing contexts in which it is operational as well as others in which it is not so, whatever the geographical location or historical period concerned, from Ancient Times to the present day. The conference has a resolutely interdisciplinary and comparative approach.
The following five perspectives will be taken into consideration:
1 Words and etymology, the history of concepts, epistemology and historiography.
Going over the main stages of thought related to alloys, cross-breeding, and hybrids, in hard / life sciences; examining the relationship between « métissage » and notions such as « acculturation », « creolization », « cultural transfers », « multiculturalism », etc…
2. Hybrid bodies.
Looking at figurative and social representations of the body; at the medical and cultural conceptions of biology (including the notions of « race » and « ethnicity »): at marriage, mixed social relationships and issues related to gender;
3. Cultural dynamics and experiences
Looking at languages, religious pluralism, the building of knowledge and skills, arts and literature.
4. Identities, the law and power
Considering questions related to official designations (as defined by the State or not), claims, regulations, origins, status in the contexts of colonization, post-colonization and immigration.
5. Territories, borders, opportunities
Approaching the issue in terms of geographic entities as well as such phenomena as discontinuity, distanciation, dis-location, visibility/invisibility.
Practical considerations:
Deadline for submissions: 31 January 2011.
Abstracts of about 1,500 characters written in French, English or Spanish must be sent together to metissages.cresc@univ-paris13.fr with a quick presentation of the authors and a short bibliography. Authors will be notified in April. The accommodation will be borne but not the travel expenses.
Organizing Committee :
Silvia Capanema (CRESC, Paris 13)
Quentin Deluermoz (CRESC, Paris 13)
Michel Molin (CRESC, Paris 13)
Marie Redon (CRESC, Paris 13)
Scientific Committee :
Jean-Loup Amselle (Anthropologie, EHESS)
Marie-Françoise Baslez (Histoire ancienne, U. Paris 4)
Pierre Bonin (Histoire du Droit, U. Paris 13)
Jean-Luc Bonniol (Anthropologie, U. Aix-Marseille 2)
Helga Bories-Sawala (Histoire contemporaine, U. Brême)
Silvia Capanema (Portugais et civilisation brésilienne, U. Paris 13)
Philippe Chanson (Anthropologie, U. Genève)
Quentin Deluermoz (Histoire contemporaine, U. Paris 13)
Richard Drayton (Histoire moderne et contemporaine, King’s College, Londres)
Claire Feuvrier-Prévotat (Histoire romaine, U. Reims)
Sophie Gotteland (Langue et littérature grecques anciennes, U. Bordeaux 3)
Bernard Grunberg (Histoire moderne, U. Reims)
Michel Kaplan (Histoire médiévale, U. Paris 1)
Patrick Le Roux (Histoire romaine, U. Paris 13)
Jean-Claude Lescure (Histoire contemporaine, U. Paris 13) Marie-José Michel (Histoire moderne, U. Paris 13)
Michel Molin (Histoire romaine, U. Paris 13)
Robert Muchembled (Histoire moderne, U. Paris 13)
Alain Musset (Géographie, EHESS)
Claire Parfait (Anglais et civilisation américaine, U. Paris 13)
Marie-Anne Paveau (Linguistique française, U. Paris 13)
Philippe Pelletier (Géographie, U. Lyon 2)
Marie Redon (Géographie, U. Paris 13)
Evelyne Samama (Histoire grecque, U. Reims)
Emmanuelle Sibeud (Histoire contemporaine, U. Paris 8 /IUF)
Pierre Singaravelou (Histoire contemporaine, U. Paris 1)
Benjamin Stora (Histoire contemporaine, U. Paris 13)
Loïc Vadelorge (Histoire contemporaine, U. Paris 13)
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Silvia Capanema (CRESC, Paris 13)
Quentin Deluermoz (CRESC, Paris 13)
Michel Molin (CRESC, Paris 13)
Marie Redon (CRESC, Paris 13)
Université Paris 13-Nord – CRESC
U.F.R. L.S.H.S. 99, avenue Jean-Baptiste Clément 93430-Villetaneuse
Email: metissages.cresc@univ-paris13.fr
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