Call for papers for the 13th Symposium of the Maison Archaeologie &
Ethnologie, René-Ginouvès, 15, 16, 17 June 2016.

 

 

(Re)Founding.

 

Modalities of the (re)beginning in time and in space

 

 

« L’étendue ne se trouve pas. Elle se fonde. » (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
Pilote de guerre, 1943, p. 160)

« A Texaco, derniers venus dans la couronne des vieux quartiers, nous
réinventâmes tout : les lois, les codes de l’urbain, les rapports de
voisinage, les règles d’implantation et de construction. (…) Et nous
voulûmes, face à l’En-ville, vivre avec l’esprit des Mornes, c’est dire :
avec notre seule ressource, et mieux : notre seul savoir. » (Patrick
Chamoiseau, Texaco, 1992, p. 348).

 

 

Questioning the way men found is tantamount to asking how they strive to
give to all things, tangible and intangible, their existence and their form.
The foundation evokes both temporal sequencing marking a before and an after
the existence of an entity of a social nature (foundation of a kingdom, of a
singular community, establishment of a constitution, of the memory to make
sense of an event) and the spatial sequencing and anchoring in the land of a
material creation (foundation of a building meant to last, the boundary
marking the limits of a city, a neighbourhood, a house or of any space
transformed into a territory when an interior and exterior are
distinguished).

 

Pursuing the reflection inaugurated last year on the concept of "historical
transition" this 13th interdisciplinary symposium of the Maison Archéologie
& Ethnologie, René-Ginouvès, proposes to better define the historical,
anthropological, social and legal modalities of beginnings in time and
space. What principles, categories, concepts are used in the act of
foundation? What cosmological or political conceptions different human
societies summon and what can archaeological evidence offer to understand
these concepts? What initial gestures, what ritual devices, what
distinctions preside over foundation? Who are the founders, how do they
impose themselves as such? And how do we view the beginning in societies
where the need to found has not been felt? Moreover, unfounding might
somehow become the norm in a contemporary world characterized by globalized
processes, the compression of space and time, the proliferation of flows. It
is also questioning the old forms of territoriality by the development of
networks and the valorisation of mobility? Can we still found today? How do
we do it? Why do we still do it? 

 

Beyond the foundation, it is also the reflection on rebuilding that this
symposium would like to tackle. All human societies experience crisis at one
time or another and are forced to confront the question of the permanence of
its underlying principles. The answers vary. They range from the myth of a
clean slate to refoundation as a pure act of memory going through a
selection of what needs to be refounded and what doesn’t necessarily need to
be. We invite submission of case studies that put the regenerative power of
refounding acts into perspective. When foundation can allow the creation
from nothing, an empty space, total otherness, refoundation involves
negotiating to some extent with the existing, however imperfect it is felt
to be, and thus assigning a value to what is already there, as well as its
materiality. What are the conditions that make the refoundation necessary at
some point? How do we envisage it and what value do we assign to it?

What does refoundation enable us to understand about the different
combinations between the will to include the social forms in a historical
continuity and the axiom according to which every society evolves and
consequently, history is basically the study of changes? What are the ways
to deal with the inertia of the inherited space within these rebuilding
processes? Is rebuilding a way to erase and forget, or rather to remember?
Or should we categorize refoundations politically by distinguishing those
that aim to conserve and those that rely on mobilization in resistance or
opposition to an existing order?

 

 

Proposals for papers, between 250 and 350 words, accompanied by a short CV
of the author should be sent before January 11, 2016 to
[log in to unmask] The selection committee will meet in
early February.

 

The final texts should be submitted at the end of summer 2016 for
publication by the Editions de la MAE in spring 2017.

 

Organization:

Philippe Gervais-Lambony, geography, (Prof. Université Paris Ouest Nanterre
la Défense)

Frédéric Hurlet, history, (Prof. Université Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense)

Isabelle Rivoal, anthropology, (CNRS)

 

 

Isabelle Rivoal

Chargée de recherche CNRS en anthropologie sociale

Laboratoire d’Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative

Directrice Scientifique Adjointe de la Maison Archéologie & Ethnologie –
René Ginouvès

21, allée de l’université – 92023 Nanterre Cedex

01 46 69 24 75

06 73 87 03 50

 

 

 


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