Abstract EN:

In this work, the author intends to analyse the person as a system among the wayana of the litany river, french guiana. After a presentation of this ethnic group and an history of anthropological conceptions of person, the author provides a very detailed anthropology of the body as it can be conceived, represented and practiced. The problem of death is also examined. Then, the author studies the non bodily components and the status of person in relation with surnatural entities. In the last part, the relations of the person with the various levels of reality (social world, nature, world of the dream) - relations wich all contribute to its definition - are considered through different themes. Finally, the author shows, through the problem of the efficacy of the medical uses, how the system of person functions as a general system taking into account the expectations of a determinated group : in fact this system of person is an answer to the whole questioning of the group. So we can understand for example how the system of illness is integrated in the system of person. This work is often based on a lexical analysis and is conceived like a network in which each subject refers to many others.