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CAHIERS DES SCIENCES HUMAINES
1992 - VOLUME 28, NUMBER 2
93.70.01 - French - Bertrand-F. GERARD,
ORSTOM, 213 rue La Fayette, 75480 Paris Cedex 10 (France)
Spoken Words in Writing (Paroles d'écriture. La lecture des traces
dans des sociétés sans écriture) (p. 161-186)
Protohistoric graphic devices are not necessarily indicative of
systems of writing. Conversely, in societies characterised as
being oral in nature, it would seem that the reading of natural or
anthropological signs precedes writing. These graphic devices,
like the natural elements which indicate the most ancient past,
"capture" the spoken word which contains its value in truth from
this past. They should be considered as signs that "are waiting"
for significations. (WESTERN AFRICA, AUSTRALIA, ANTHROPOLOGY)
93.70.02 - French - Denis VIDAL, Sociologue,
ORSTOM, 213 rue La Fayette, 75480 Paris Cedex 10 (France)
An Echo of Gandhi. Traditional Resistance in the Face of
Colonialism (Le gandhisme en écho. Des traditions de résistance à
l'épreuve du colonialisme) (p. 187-207)
This paper demonstrates the fundamental ambiguity concerning the
success of the nonforms of collective action (violent or not) in
use in Rajasthan province. Rebellions by the nobility (Rajputs)
against the sovereign, tribal revolts, suicide threats by certain
casts, Brahmanes, Bhats, Charans (bards whose role in society is shown to
be essential by the author), protest emigration of entire
populations: all are customary methods of social protest. However,
in the face of British intransigence which modified the rules of
the game, their effectiveness progressively diminished during the
colonial period. Non-violence advocated by Gandhi can thus be
placed against a background of generalised crisis in traditional
methods of intervention or resistance by the various local
communities. Its good fortune was that it seemed capable of
providing an adequate and unique solution to this multivarious
crisis. Thus were brought together a paradoxical assembly of
social groups far removed from Gandhi's ideas, or foreigners with
nationalistic goals. (INDIA, EMIGRATION, VIOLENCE, NATIONALISM)
93.70.03 - French - Philippe LENA, Museu
Goeldi, Departamento de ciências humanas, CP 399, 66040 Belem (PA)
(Brazil)
Social Trajectories, Spatial Mobility and Peasant Accumulation in
Brazilian Amazonia: The Example of Rondônia (Trajectoires
sociales, mobilité spatiale et accumulation paysanne en Amazonie
brésilienne: un exemple en Rondônia) (p. 209-234)
Different scenarios for the evolution of small-scale Amazonian
agriculture are critically examined as are different theories
which attempt to interpret current dynamic trends. Results from
two surveys carried out in the same population of 100 families in
the PIC Ouro Preto (Rondônia) but separated by a 7-year interval
are employed to evaluate possibility of accumulating this small-
scale agriculture and to analyse the strategies developed by the
migrants. Animal rearing would appear to be best adapted to the
specific conditions of the "frontier" with all the consequences
that such a strategy implies in terms of deforestation. In
addition, the sale of land, followed by the purchase or occupation
of a less valuable lot would appears to be a commonly employed
strategy by colonists to raise the capital that they often lack.
(BRAZIL, GEOGRAPHIC MOBILITY, MIGRATION, AGRICULTURE)
93.70.04 - French - Kamala MARIUS-GNANOU,
Résidence Genovia, bât. B, Chemin-Bontemps, 33400 Talence (France)
Green Revolution and Self-reliance in Food: The Case of the
Pondicherry Region, Southern India (Révolution verte et maîtrise
alimentaire: le cas de la région de Pondichéry (Inde méridionale))
(p. 235-259)
Enclaved in Tamil Nadu, the Pondicherry region has in recent years
experienced rice self-reliance thanks to the three following
factors of the Green Revolution - tube wells, high yielding
varieties, fertilizers and pesticides - involvement of the state
in an attempts to overcome the deficiencies of the traditional
rural structure and innovative ability of the peasants. Within the
last quarter of a century, rice production has tripled, whereas
the area devoted to rice cultivation has only grown by 15%. The
increase in agricultural output has benefited the farmers,
lowering the threshold of self-sufficient exploitation. In
contrast, the insufficient diversification of the economy and the
considerable demographic pressure has led to a proletarianization
of the marginal farmers and to the pauperization of the landless.
(INDIA, FOOD PRODUCTION, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION)
93.70.05 - French - Jean-Louis CHALEARD, Ecole
Normale Supérieure, 31 avenue Lombart, 92261 Fontenay-aux-Roses
Cedex (France), and Papa-Samba N'DAW, CIRES, Université d'Abidjan
(Ivory Coast)
Migrations and Intensification: Agrarian Dynamics of the Lobi in
North-west Ivory Coast (Migrations et intensifications: la
dynamique agraire des Lobi du Nord-Est ivoirien) (p. 261-281)
The authorities of the Ivory Coast have created villages in a no
man's land in the Northeast of the country to settle the Lobi.
These people practise a very dynamic and accomplished agriculture,
which combines food grain for their own consumption, and yam for
urban markets. Techniques are, however, very extensive and the
Lobi need to seek new lands to cultivate. The culture of cotton
which requires more intesive techniques and which favours
population stabilization was introduced recently. Unfortunately
its success is limited because it is a speculation which is less
lucrative than yam. Therefore, the Lobi keep migrating. (WESTERN
AFRICA, COTE D'IVOIRE, AGRICULTURE, FARMING SYSTEMS, MIGRATION)
93.70.06 - French - Jean-François BARE,
ORSTOM, 213 rue La Fayette, 75480 Paris Cedex 10 (France)
Tunisia, Small Scale Industries and the Big Bank (La Tunisie, la
petite entreprise et la grande banque. Une tentative de
description d'un prêt d'aide au développement) (p. 283-304)
This article attempts to describe the conditions for
implementation and the workings of a multilateral loan. To do
this, the loan has to be considered as a system binding together
different actors, which evolves over time. The article points out
the necessity of direct enquiries, both descriptive and
retrospective, among the various actors involved, for a better
evaluation of financial development aid. (TUNISIA, ANTHROPOLOGY,
DEVELOPMENT AID)
93.70.07 - French - Bernard CONTAMIN, ORSTOM,
04 BP 293, Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire), and Yves-André FAURE, ORSTOM,
Département Sud, 01 BP 182 Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)
The Economies and States of French-speaking Africa (Des économies
et des Etats en Afrique francophone: pour comprendre
l'interventionnisme) (p. 305-326)
States have lost their saintly halo. Accused of creating financial
disorder and playing a major role in Africa's economic and social
crisis of the 1980s, their role has been, in principal, reduced to
that of classical regalia by programmes of structural adjustment
and political liberalism carried out over the last decade. The
economic analysis of interventionist policies broadened to over
sociology and history has revealed the numerous determinant
factors in the State's rise to power, the multiple interests that
they served and the magnitude of the functions invested in them.
The analysis indicates an appreciation that is less negative of
the State's role and more subtle as regards its activity and leads
to a better understanding or the obvious failures and the patent
limits of the current adjustments and privatisations. (FRENCH-
SPEAKING AFRICA, ECONOMIC RECESSION)
93.70.08 - French - Philippe LAVIGNE DELVILLE,
Groupe de recherches anthropologiques EHESS-CNRS, 2 rue de la
Charité, 13002 Marseille (France)
Village Groups and Transition (Groupements villageois et processus
de transition) (p. 327-343)
In West Africa, the growing number of peasant groups and village
associations has now to be seen as a social phenomenon. As far
from any utilitarian concept as from any community ideology, the
formation of groups are, from a peasant point of view, primarily a
question of collective action. At the interface between technique
and social relationship, peasant groups reflect and crystalize the
power stakes of the global society. They reveal and act on
dynamics of social change. (WESTERN AFRICA, PEASANTRY, RURAL
COMMUNITIES)
1992 - VOLUME 28, NUMBER 3
SOCIAL RECOMPOSITIONS IN LATIN AMERICA (Part I)
93.70.09 - French - Nadya Araujo CASTRO and
Antonio Sérgio Alfredo GUIMARAES, Département de sociologie,
Université fédérale de Bahia, Estrada de Sao Lazaro, 197
Federaçao, Salvador BA 40210 (Brazil)
Workers of the Lost Decade: Images of Industrial Work and Social
Identities in the Brazilian Northeast (Les ouvriers de la décennie
perdue. Réflexions sur le travail industriel et les identités de
classe à Bahia (Brésil)) (p. 373-389)
The authors analyse the process of class formation among skilled
workers in the new industries of Bahia, a peripheral region of
industrial Brazil. They review and discuss the thesis denying any
possibility of class making in social contexts in which prevail
relatively high salaries and qualifications, job stability, public
capital and development ideologies. They advance an opposite view
of a less objectivist theory, based on their research experience,
describing the mechanisms through which class radicalism emerged
among skilled petrochemical workers in Bahia. (BRAZIL, SKILLED
WORKERS, SOCIAL CLASSES)
93.70.10 - French - Thierry LULLE, Universidad
Externado de Colombia, Facultad Trabajo Social, AA 034141 Bogota
(Colombia)
The Role of the Employment in the Building Industry in the Urban
Integration of the Migrants in Bogota, Colombia (Un aiguillage
ambigu: le rôle de l'emploi dans le bâtiment dans l'insertion des
migrants à Bogota (Colombie)) (p. 391-411)
The purpose of this article is to analyse the current mechanisms
of the integration of the migrants in Bogota and in particular the
role of employment in this process. Occupational and social
histories of migrant construction workers are analysed. This
sector offers possibilities of various kinds: the transition to
better work in other sectors, the permanence of this transitory
stage with a precarious integration, upward occupational and
social mobility through access to the status of self-employed.
(COLOMBIA, CAPITAL CITY, MIGRANT WORKERS, INTEGRATION)
93.70.11 - French - Michel AGIER, Centro de
Recursos Humanos, Université fédérale de Bahia, Estrada de Sao
Lazaro, 197 Federaçao, Salvador BA 40210 (Brazil)
The Urban World: Family, Family Systems and Modern Life in Bahia,
Brazil (L'emprise urbaine. Famille, familialisme et modernité à
Bahia (Brésil)) (p. 413-437)
Is family life an archaic system destined to disappear as
urbanisation and industrialisation increase and family size
decreases? The study carried out in a population neighbourhood of
Bahia shows the side-by-side existence of many domestic
arrangements and considerable consensus in regard to family values
and their influence. This creates a community spirit in the
popular quarters that forms a legitimate basis for current urban
social movements. (BRAZIL, URBAN COMMUNITIES, FAMILY LIFE)
93.70.12 - French - Pierre PELTRE, ORSTOM, 213
rue La Fayette, 75480 Paris Cedex 10 (France), and Robert
D'ERCOLE, IFEA, Les Mas-Perrichaud n . 5, 15 rue de la Contamine,
38120 Saint-Egrève (France)
Cities and Volcanos. Quito, between Pichincha and Cotopaxi,
Ecuador (La ville et le volcan. Quito, entre Pichincha et Cotopaxi
(Equateur)) (p. 439-459)
Located in a zone of mountains about 8,200 ft., Quito (one million
inhabitants) is constantly threatened by serious natural hazards:
mud flows, volcanic activities, earthquakes. The first two of
these hazards which represent the focus of the paper have been
studied from an urban environment management perspective. The
hazards related to the volcanic nature of the site have been
studied through an analysis of the local press between 1900 and
1988. While they are frequent but not dramatic, their consequences
could be minimized through an appropriate program of physical
maintenance of the site. The lahar (volcanic mud and debris flow)
that would result from the eruption of the two nearby volcanos
could be very dangerous, but their predictable frequency is
minimal. The appropriate civil defense program which involves both
the prevision of the risk and the preventative evacuation of the
population is difficult to manage, notably because of the problems
associated with the perception of the risks involved, and the
diffusion of the relevant information. These problems have been
studied through a survey of 2,000 families living in the areas
threatened by the Cotopaxi. (ECUADOR, NATURAL DISASTERS, URBAN
ENVIRONMENT)
93.70.13 - French - Catherine AUBERTIN,
ORSTOM, 72 route d'Aulnay, 93143 Bondy Cedex (France)
The Right to a Dwelling: Democratic Program or Instrument of
Clientelism. The Example of Brasilia - Federal District (Le droit
au logement: enjeu démocratique ou instrument du clientélisme?
L'exemple de Brasilia - District fédéral) (p. 461-479)
Is the right to a dwelling, which was recently included in the
Brazilian constitution, a valid indication of urban evolution?
After reminding the reader that public housing programs in
Brazilia have not produced any radical changes and that
associative movements are unable to present themselves as
democratic alternatives in regard to urban management, the
question is raised as to whether real changes are not to be found
in a new approach to events which favours itineraries and
relations between the various social actors. Housing would thus
appear to be a factor in the repsentation and the creation of
social relationships. (BRAZIL, HOUSING, URBAN PLANNING, URBAN
PROBLEMS)
93.70.14 - French - Jeanne BISILLIAT, ORSTOM,
72 route d'Aulnay, 93143 Bondy Cedex (France)
How to Be Poor and Citizen? (Comment être pauvre et citoyen?) (p.
481-496)
This paper explains not only the fundamental part of the ideology
of the Church of Liberation in the growth of Housing Popular
Movements but also the important part that it played in the
organisation of the claimings and the training of poor people in
Sao Paulo, Brazil. But it also shows the obstacles and, perhaps,
the impossibilities for these movements to become a real force of
social change. (BRAZIL, POVERTY, HOUSING)
93.70.15 - French - Didier FASSIN, Institut
français d'études andines, AP 17.11.06596,
Quito (Ecuador)
Women's Place in the Political Field. Feminine Movements in the
Working Classes of Ecuador (L'espace féminin dans le champ
politique. Mobilisations de femmes dans les milieux populaires en
Equateur) (p. 497-514)
Women's movements in the Latinamerican working classes have
recently begun being studied by sociologists and historians, and
the focus was mainly on the most spectacular ones. The objective
of this article is to analyse more ordinary social actions and
restore the meaning of women's everyday political practices
through the example of two case studies realized in Ecuador, one
in a suburban environment, the other in a rural area. (ECUADOR,
WOMEN, WORKING CLASS)
93.70.16 - French - Gérard ROY, ORSTOM, rua
Caiubi 372, Apt. 22, 05010 Sao Paulo (Brazil)
From the Wage Worker to the Small Free Farmer: What Type of
Organisation for Agrarian Reform Experiments? (Du travailleur
salarié au petit producteur libre: quelle construction pour des
expériences de réforme agraire?) (p. 515-534)
During Brazilian transition to democracy, the state of Sao Paulo
initiated a system of wage-earning family settlements in the
countryside based on a collectivist or semi-collectivist system.
This experiment rapidly failed to fulfil its promise as efficiency
and equality between the small farmers had been set above their
individual freedom. (BRAZIL, FARMERS, AGRARIAN REFORM)
1992 - VOLUME 28, NUMBER 4
SOCIAL RECOMPOSITIONS IN LATIN AMERICA (Part II)
93.70.17 - French - Philippe LENA, Museu
Goeldi, Departamento de ciências humanas, CP 399, 66040 Belem (PA)
(Brazil)
Expansion of the Economic Frontier, Access to the Market and Rural
Transformation in Brazilian Amazonia (Expansion de la frontière
économique, accès au marché et transformation de l'espace rural en
Amazonie brésilienne) (p. 579-601)
The disenclavement of Amazonia is leading to the transformation of
production systems used by local populations and immigrants as
well as the appearance of social movements which are often
interpreted unequivocally as defenders of local cultures and
regional forms of production. This would seem to be a secondary
phenomenon when compared with the volume of claims for citizenship
and participation, in which integration into the market system and
access to consumer society represent a fundamental element. This
general move towards integration is, however, characterised by
considerable differences in rate and method due to the different
social forms created in the past and to the very varied
geographical conditions in existence where distance and
accessibility are extremely limiting factors for agricultural
modernisation. (BRAZIL, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, AGRICULTURAL
DEVELOPMENT)
93.70.18 - French - Michel PORTAIS, ORSTOM
Mexico Homero 1804-1002, 11510 Mexico (Mexico)
The Mexicali Valley: An Agricultural Satellite of California? (La
valée de Mexicali: un satellite agricole de la Californie?) (p.
603-623)
The Mexicali Valley, on the north-west frontier between Mexico and
the United States, is formed by the Colorado river's delta plain
which extends northwards to Imperial Valley. 200,000 hectares are
irrigated from both sides of the border, under almost identical
natural conditions, but the sides have undergone different
development since the development began in 1900. The organization
processes of these two areas can be considered through two totally
different approaches: the reticular approach, which prevailed
until 1937, and the territorial approach, which dominated from
1937 to 1982. Within the present context of open frontier policy
and the State's disengagement which was initiated in 1982, we may
consider that differences caused by history are the source of new
dynamics. Baja California and especially the Mexicali Valley not
only integrate into new international networks but also into a
wider Californian region. (UNITED STATES, MEXICO, AGRICULTURAL
DEVELOPMENT)
93.70.19 - French - Luc CAMBREZY, ORSTOM, 911
avenue Agropolis, B.P. 5045, 34032 Montpellier Cedex (France)
Land and Territory in Mexico (Veracruz): From Agrarian Reform to
Municipal Fiction (Terre et territoire au Mexique (Veracrus). De
la réforme agraire à la fiction municipale) (p. 625-642)
In Mexico, agrarian reform has for many decades been one of the
strongest pillars upholding the political and social stability of
the country. However, the interminable sharing out of the land has
only strengthened the malfunctions existing between land
organisation and territorial division, and is so doing, has
challenged the concept of "municipio libre" and has shed an
unusual light on the all powerful central authorities. The current
block in the land system, the difficult cohabitation between
private owners and collective organisations, their excessive
demographic reproduction, are all elements which have led the
authorities to take new measures in land reglementation. Will the
political system follow? (MEXICO, AGRARIAN REFORM)
93.70.20 - French - Jean-Yves MARCHAL, ORSTOM,
213 rue La Fayette, 75480 Paris Cedex 10 (France)
A Return to the Glorius Days of the Haciendas, Veracruz, Gulf of
Mexico (Bref retour en arrière: les haciendas dans leur gloire)
(p. 643-664)
In Mexico, the hacienda was eliminated by agrarian reform
initiated in the 20s. To give land is one thing, but to cultivate
it successfully is another. Today, after a half-aborted "green
revolution", peasants mostly devote themselves to self-consumption
while grain must be imported to satisfy internal demand. Now, as
negotiations for a free-trade treaty between Mexico, the United
States and Canada are in process, Mexican agriculture is urged to
compete, although it is unable on the whole to do so. In this
context, thoughts turn back to the model of great capitalist
enterprise. (MEXICO, UNITED STATES, CANADA, AGRICULTURE, TRADE)
93.70.21 - French - Odile HOFFMANN, ORSTOM,
213 rue La Fayette, 75480 Paris Cedex 10 (France), and David
SKERRITT, Universidad Veracruzana, Centro de Investigaciones
Historicas, Apartado Postal 369, Xalapa 91000, Veracruz (Mexico)
The Mexican Rancher: A Little-known Figure in the Rural World
(Enquête sur une figure peu connue du monde rural: le ranchero du
Mexique) (p. 665-684)
For a long time our knowledge of the Mexican rancher was limited
to a popular image; academics preferred a polarised approach which
simply categorised him as a rural petit bourgeois. However,
various recent works have attempted to rescue him from this
oblivion, concentrating mainly upon his politico-military feats
during regional and national convulsions. This article is directed
towards the study of the long and slow process which led to the
formation of the ranchero as an individual, and his consolidation
in groups. The authors join forces to reflect upon the results
obtained from their individual studies in the centre of Veracruz
State, in an attempt to find elements which may explain the
permanence of the Mexican rancher. Rather than choose unilateral
approach, the article tries to focus upon multiple elements
(economy, geography, culture and politics), which provide a rich
and complex vision of this central figure, so important even today
in many Mexican communities. Although the text is based upon
regional and local case studies, it seeks points of comparison on
the national and continental levels. (MEXICO, RURAL ENVIRONMENT)
93.70.22 - French - Florence PINTON,
Département de sociologie, Université Paris-X, 18 rue Descartes,
75005 Paris (France), and Laure EMPERAIRE, ORSTOM-INPA-ECOLOGIE,
CP 478, 69011 Manaus (AM) (Brazil)
The Extractive Resource System in the Brazilian Amazon: An
Identity Crisis (L'extractivisme en Amazonie brésilienne: un
système en crise d'identité) (p. 685-703)
Extractive resource systems, historic factors in the development
of the Amazon, consitute a signficant source of revenue for the
State of Amazonas in Brazil and involve practically the entire
rural population. Their future is now being affected by
development policies designed to combine the valorisation of the
resources of the Amazon with their conservation. However, the
polemic between experts regarding the economic and social
viability of "extractive reserves" tends to be overshadowed by the
complexity of the production systems themselves. On the basis of
field work undertaken in central Amazon, this paper presents some
findings concerning a community of caboclos. Their behaviour and
strategies illustrate the difficulties facing local people
confronted with a development dynamic that is increasingly out of
their control. Their questioning of traditional resource-use
patterns reveals a crisis in such production systems, which are
under increasing pressure. (BRAZIL, RURAL POPULATION, DEVELOPMENT
POLICY)
93.70.23 - French - Christian GEFFRAY
Imaginary Debts of the Rubber Harvestors (La dette imaginaire des
collecteurs de caoutchouc) (p. 705-725)
The principle of subordination as experienced by the seringueros
workers in regard to their "patrons" is a result of the latters'
collective monopoly on the means of circulating goods (transport
and exchange). In this way the "patrons" manage to appropriate the
entire value added to the product by the "clientele" in their
captive market (the seringal). The market operation is just the form
taken by a transfer within the captive market: supply of the means
of subsistence and implements against the entire rubber
production. In this fictional merchant system, debt is simply an
accounting form of client dependence registered in the accounting
ledger. This fiction, however, is one of the factors which
constitute the social relationship considered in this article?
Because the "clients" are partners in a fictional market and are
subject to the accounts of an imaginary creditor to whom they feel
eternally indebted, they may become the patron's godsons, members
of no less a finctional family built around the patron-godfather.
The author refuses to use the approximate notion of "semi-slavery"
to qualify this kind of formal subordination of labour to merchant
capital. Apart from the particular case of rubber, the author
proposes an analysis of aviamento which rejects the explanation in
terms of debt. (LATIN AMERICA, LABOUR MARKET)
93.70.24 - French - Philippe HAMELIN, ORSTOM,
22 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris (France)
Changes in Brazil as Viewed from the Amazon (Mutations au Brésil.
Vue d'Amazonie) (p. 727-748)
The economic development of Brazil during the 1980s was very poor.
Was this crisis due to political and social changes that occurred
during the decade, or was the crisis itself the cause of these
changes? It is very difficult to reply to this question but
Brazilian society in 1990 is very different in structure from that
of 1980. The return to democracy in 1985, economic changes and the
rapid decline in fertility, even if these have not yet had an
impact on statistical data, are an indication of the profound
change which diffused throughout society and reached even to the
peripheral zones such as Amazonia. (BRAZIL, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT)
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