Abstract EN:

The Pové people (a Gabonese ethnic group living in Ogooué-Lolo province) and French forestry workers have a very different conceptualization of what the "forest" is. Working from this difference, this thesis lays out a sketch, and develops some key principles, of a working anthropology of the concept "forest". Each of the two populations studied has a different cognitive model of what the forest is and what it does. In effect a cognitive model is ot the "forest" is a model of how the "forest" is humanized or brought under human control. And there is a long history in each case of how these groups relate to the forest. These models are identified as (i) pro-forest model and (ii) and anti-forest model, but this is just a rough first approximation. The real interest lies not in the extreme formulation of thesis and anti-thesis but in the various subtle ideological postures and practices that occupy the middle ground between the extremes. These are illustrated by drawing on examples from close at hand, namely the Pygmy populations of Gabon, and various ecologically-oriented NGOs that have projects in Gabon. The thesis also considers examples from historically more distant cultures such as the Pharos in Egypt and the Druids in Europe. By considering these various case studies, and using yhe comparative linguistic methodology familiar from Bantu research, the study proposes a model which comprises a comparative anthropology of the forest.