La parenté recomposée : figures Peul de l'alliance sur les hauts plateaux de l'Adamaoua (nord Cameroun)
Institution:
Paris 10Disciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
In his dissertation, laurent s. Barry intends to reexamine, using new methodologies, the problem that "arab marriage" poses to anthropological theories on kinship and to the theory of marriage versus descent groups. Numerous studies done in the past which have foreseen this issue, have in fact generally obscured the investigation of practices in actual marriages and have concentrated only on analysing local views which give importance to marriage within the nearest agnatic line. The few works which nevertheless manifested a certain interest on the empirical aspect of marriage did not do more than "count" the unions between close relatives (i. E. , between first cousins). The author's study led to a development of a representative corpus listing almost 3,400 marriages from a sampling of 5,000 persons (all generations included). These data were gathered from different fulbe communities of the adamawa highlands (northern cameroon, republic of central africa), comprising "nomadic" groups (wodaabe, aku and jafun called mbororoen) and those which belong to lineage of sheepherding and land-tilling settled nomads (called foulbe). These are societies which share the same matrimonial system while practising considerably different systems of social organization. After examining these data, laurent s. Barry then confronts two domains of facts : the normative views which organize conceptions about and representations of affinity and practices in actual marriages. This analysis, for which the author developed a specific software called genos to process genealogical trees, is therefore concerned not only about the consideration of the "types" of preferred unions but especially about the way they fit into the logical whole of all marriage effected in preceding generations. These two combined are what laurent s. Barry calls "affinity complex".
Abstract FR:
Dans sa these, laurent s. Barry se propose de conduire un reexamen du probleme que pose le "mariage arabe" aux theories anthropologiques de la parente, theorie de l'alliance vs des groupes de filiation, sur de nouvelles bases methodologiques. Les etudes precedentes, au demeurant fort nombreuses, ayant envisage cette problematique ont en effet generalement occulte l'examen des pratiques matrimoniales effectives, pour ne se concentrer que sur la seule exegese du discours local qui valorise le mariage au sein de la lignee agnatique proche, les rares travaux qui semblaient neanmoins manifester un certain interet pour la dimension empirique des faits matrimoniaux se satisfaisant alors d'un simple "denombrement" des unions entre parents proches (i. E. Entre cousins germains). Les enquetes de l'auteur ont abouti a la constitution d'un corpus matrimonial representatif, recensant pres de 3. 400 mariages pour un echantillon portant sur plus de 5. 000 personnes (toutes generations confondues). Ces donnees furent recueillies aupres des diverses communautes peul des hauts plateaux de l'adamawa (nord cameroun, republique centrafricaine), comprenant a la fois des groupes "nomades" (wodaabe, aku et jafun dits mbororo'en) et des lignages d'agro-pasteurs sedentarises (dits foulbe), societes qui, tout en connaissant des modes d'organisations sociales sensiblement distincts, n'en partagent pas moins un meme systeme matrimonial. Partant de l'examen de ces donnes, laurent s. Barry confronte donc deux ordres de faits, le discours normatif - lequel organise les conceptions et les representations de l'alliance - et les pratiques matrimoniales effectives. Cette analyse, pour laquelle l'auteur developpa un logiciel de traitement genealogique specifique, intitule genos, porte donc non seulement sur la prise en consideration des "types" d'unions privilegiees, mais surtout sur la facon dont ces derniers s'inserent dans l'ensemble coherent des alliances effectuees aux generations precedentes, combinatoire que laurent s. Barry qualifie de "complexe d'alliance".