The (Jean) Nouvel Other: Primitivism and the Musée du Quai Branly

The Musée du Quai Branly, located beside the Eiffel Tower in Paris, opened in June 2006. Constructed to house France's important collection of non-western art, the museum has been promoted as ‘decidedly post-colonial’ and a place of ‘reconciliation and sharing’. Historians have situated the creation of the museum within political debates over the restructuring of several of France's museums and, more broadly, the country's position in a post-colonial world, while focusing little critical attention on the building itself. The author argues that Jean Nouvel's architectural program for the Musée du Quai Branly—a ‘primitive shelter’ surrounded by a ‘sacred wood’—gives physical form to a primitivist aesthetic. The unproblematised binaries of self versus other and culture versus nature evident in Nouvel's design reveal a surprisingly unsophisticated theoretical standpoint. As a frame in which to view and understand the objects on display, the Musée du Quai Branly invites a primitivist—and colonial—reading of its collection.     

Between Regionalization and Centralization: The Creation of the Musée Léopold II in Elisabethville (Musée national de Lubumbashi), Belgian Congo (1931–1961)

Since “museumland” was revisited in the 1980s, different authors have studied the history of colonial museums in Europe within a broader discussion on colonial bias, the creation of traditions and the theory of representation. It has become clear, for example, how African utensils were exported to Europe, where they were exhibited as curiosa, ethnographical objects or art. But what happened when the very notion of the museum was exported back to Africa? Who created these institutes and in what context? Was the relationship between colonizers and colonized altered? Did the “social life” of the objects on show change? And what was the relationship between the “old” museums in Europe and the “new” ones created in the colony? These questions have rarely been studied. In this article, the creation of the Musée Léopold II will be used as a basis to offer insight into the links between colonial “science” and “policy”, which proved not to be as monolithic as often portrayed, but rather were complex amalgamations of different opinions and even conflicting interests.     

L'arrivée des premiers métallurgistes sur l'Ogooué, Gabon

Résumé Au Gabonca 2400–2300 BP, les dernières cultures néolithiques des savanes de la moyenne vallée de l'Ogooué, succombent face à une rapide expansion de populations porteuses de fer. Cet événement, identifié sur des critères céramologiques et des mesures radiométriques, paraît situer l'arrivée des premiers métallurgistes — probablement Bantu — sur les berges de l'Ogooué.

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In the savannas of the middle stretches of the Ogooué valley in Gabon,ca 2400–2300 bp, the last neolithic cultures succombed to the rapid expansion of ironworking populations. This event, identified on ceramic criteria and radiocarbon dates, may represent the arrival of the first Bantu ironworkers on the banks of the Ogooué.

     

Pottery Production, Distribution, and Consumption—The Contribution of the Physical Sciences

The study of the life cycle of pottery, from the selection of raw materials and the production stage through distribution and use to ultimate discard, can make a valuable contribution to archaeological research. The aim of the present paper is to provide a summary and critical assessment of the particular contribution of the physical sciences to the reconstruction and interpretation of this life cycle, in large part through the presentation of selected case studies. The topics covered include the reconstruction of the technology used in pottery production, through a combination of microscopy, radiography, and chemical analysis; the investigation of the extent of craft specialization and the organization of pottery production; the reconstruction of pottery distribution from its production center, using thin-section petrography and chemical analysis, and the interpretation of these data in terms of exchange and trade; the reconstruction of the consumption stage or uses to which pottery was put, from the study of surface wear, organic residues, and performance characteristics; and a discussion of the reasons for the introduction of pottery and for the different technological choices made in pottery production. Throughout, the importance of considering the overall environmental, technological, economic, sociopolitical, cultural–ideological and historical context in which the pottery was produced, distributed, and consumed is emphasized. The paper is concerned, almost-exclusively, with unglazed earthenware spanning prehistory through to circa 1500 AD.     

The union Européenne des fédéralistes and its ‘third force’ programme

Environmental Education (EE) is broadly discussed in the Federal Republic of Germany. The different conceptions may be classified as the cognitive, the emotive, the cognitive-experiential and the system-critical model. In the article, the role of institutions in the educational system, dealing with EE, is described. Current activities in empirical research work and some findings on EE in German schools are reported.     

On Will and Reason in L'astrée

This article sheds light on the technique of amplificatio by which Boccaccio expands the stories of famous women he finds in Valerius Maximus's De fide uxorium. Boccaccio's work on famous women situates itself between the genres of fiction and the historical treatise. It analyzes in philological detail Boccaccio's citation technique and his elaboration of the ancient model, showing how the greatest narrator of the Italian Middle Ages revitalizes and actualizes it and crafts an original literary product.     

Ordre des décrets divins,hiérarchie des droits humains

Until the xvi^th century, the use of public force in the service of religious unity seems to be a consequence of a zeal for the salvation of others. In order to reach civil peace, in the nations where different creeds confronted each other, it was necessary to find a theological foundation for the legal recognition of a freedom of conscience and of religion. The Protestant theologians of the Academy of Saumur, founded by Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, a negotiator of the Edict of Nantes, sought this foundation in a theology of creation. God created man to live peacefully in the company of his fellow-men and the drama of original sin, although it led for its reparation to a revelation from God, protected by the Church, did not destroy this primary order. «We are men, writes Amyraut, before being Christians.»     

The Media Prism and Reflections on Insécurité

This article considers media coverage of the theme of insécurité in the French presidential election of 2002, at which the National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen shocked the French nation by winning a place in the second round contest against the incumbent President Jacques Chirac. We examine the much-publicised accusation that the media contributed to Le Pen's success by excessive, distorting coverage of insécurité, the polemic surrounding this charge, and issues of media responsibility. While much writing on the topic has focused on thematic media analysis or on the interaction of politicians, the media and the electorate in setting the election agenda, this article discusses the findings of a number of quantitative media studies and focuses on the terms and nature of media discourse. Through a discussion of insécurité, the article highlights the misleading potential of simplistic labelling and vague emotive terminology, amplified in sensational coverage by competing media outlets.     

Economics and Social Sciences: Complements,Competitors, Accomplices?

In November 2000 the 10th annual conference of the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE) took place in Berlin. The meeting drew together 164 academics and researchers from America, Asia and Europe. The conference was organized with the title "Economics and Social Sciences: Complements, Competitors, Accomplices?". As well addressing its central theme, the conference was opened to different economic topics. In this paper, three participants present selected sessions and papers which are of interest for and related to spatial perspectives, that is 'Technology', 'Economy, Society and Territory', 'The Firm', 'Culture and Technology', 'Economics and Social Sciences', 'Borrowing Ideas from the Social Sciences', 'Economic Methodology', 'Conceptual Frameworks' and, in addition to these sessions, Michael Storper's opening keynote address on 'Economic Geography in the Internet Age'.     

Wind Words and Fury: Canada and the Geneva Protocol, 1925–26

Abstract

Negotiation over the Geneva Protocol and its acceptance or rejection is placed in the context of Canadian domestic policy and its relationships both to the League of Nations, of which the Canadian government remained a strong support in principle, and the demands and expectations of its place within the British empire.