Contenu du sommaire : La globalisation de l'ethnicité ?

Is there an autochthon in the plane ? From local ethnic groups to global autochthony via sustainable biodiversity management The notion of “autochthonous peoples” appears with use to have become more “global” than local as a category. It takes on meaning and acquires recognition as a reference in international bodies and forums where it has been introduced and it is continually being redefined. The term as a category arose out of United Nations concerns for the defence of minority peoples' rights. It is strongly gaining significance in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The involvement of autochthonous peoples and their “traditional” knowledge and know-how for biodiversity management is now a core element of the UN's work. The article first examines the context in which this approach emerged in relation to biodiversity. Next are tackled the shifts in meaning caused by transmission from one international arena to another. This fluctuation in terminology links to the contexts of usage and instrumentalization of the concept which contributes to the construction of a category whose operability is more important than its substance. The paper concludes with a comparison of the use of this category with that of ethnic group which, in the colonial context of Africa, had in a significantly similar manner helped to guide thinking on a social and political order.

Black diaspora of the Americas : an examination based on the notion of “cross-state bond” Starting from the term “cross-state”, this article examines the possible existence in the Americas of a “transverse” social bond for Black people descended from slaves. People's points of identification through this bond do not lie in a founder state or a territory of origin such as attachment to a “diaspora”, a closely-related notion, could lead one to suppose. They have developed rather with continuing predominance of the category of race. The strength of this category and its reappropriation by Black nationalist and panafrican tendencies are considered in turn, as is the wide range of social constructs that it generates which could correlate with the transversality sought.

Points of convergences and tensions between ethnicity and environmentalism in the Amazon Basin Research on conflicts associated with oil and natural gas exploitation in the Amazon Basin is taken as the basis for examining the points of convergence and tensions between two large collective campaigning forces operating in the Amazon Basin : the Indian movement and the environmental movement. The Author first looks at the concept of ethnicity alongside the actual situation of identity-related movements in Latin America, bringing to evidence the special characteristics of the Andean-Amazonian movement. The paper turns next to identification of the ways in which ethnicity issues and environmentalism converge, using the case of the COICA (Coordination of Indian Organisations of the Amazon basin). Finally, analysis is made of the problems the Amazon Indian Movement has to face, in particular those stemming from tensions with certain sectors of the ecologist movement and internal divisions that have recently sprung up.

Akanite identity and pentecostalism : ethno-national identity and global religion The encounter with missionaries was a historic moment for the African continent. Its importance finds expression in several ways, among which is the formation of African churches. These have now become the cradle of ethno-national identities, where renewed forms of African ethnicity are constructed. This is notably the true in the world of Pentecostal movements. The Church of the Pentecost, founded in Ghana by a Scottish missionary in the 1950s, has gradually taken on an historic mission which makes Ghana a “missionary nation” in the same way as Nigeria has for the Yoruba Pentecostalists. This contribution aims to bring to light the identity-related ethos that leads to the formation of a Christian community that is Ghanaian and transnational. The prime example of the historic formation of the Church of the Pentecost of Ghana illustrates a moderate form of indigenous movement, but other kinds of Ghanaian Pentecostalism show signs of opening up to afrocentrist theses already present in the tissue of panafricanism.

Globalized identity and collective rights : the issues for autochthonous peoples in the United Nations galaxy The end of the XXth Century was a key period for the organization of the autochthonous peoples' movement and the development of political and legal thought. The debates in the United Nations system took on a new operational dimension through influence from programmes of the organization's various agencies. These institutional developments are leading in the United Nations to the construction of the profile of the person representative of autochthonous people who combines political and identity-related qualities with an image of expert. The constitutional changes introduced in some States are the expression of an historic movement towards an overall re-examination of the move for national identity and citizenship. In this context, it is essential to consider the ways in which collective rights and individual rights of the person can be reconciled, in order to settle disputes among autochthons themselves and between them and non-autochthons. Collective action has made universal the relationship between the State and one of its components, and led to a means of bringing into perspective the possible measures to take for these populations concerning education, health and development, as well as political rights. That brings into question the relationship between a “people” in the philosophical sense of the word and “peoples” in terms of cultural entities given an ethnic character, elaborated in a political and legal language that is seeking a new grammar.

From village to “global village” : emergence and construction of a Berber claim to autochthonous identity in Morocco This article traces the origins and development of the Berber movement in Morocco in order to draw a picture of the different stages in the process of appropriating the notion of ethnicity, the different characters it has taken on and its incorporation in global networks. It examines the transformation that has taken place between a discourse involving heritage to one of defence of a Berber identity that stretches beyond the borders of nation states. In order to do that, it highlights how the Berber movement emerged from Rabat intellectual circles, its networks of influence and how it built up at national level, to gain an insight into the way it acquired international scope through the concept of a Berber diaspora. Placing of this movement in the institutional and political context should allow us to grasp the nature of the legitimacy it advocates : recognition culturally (by means of a definite place in the media, in research, etc.), in linguistic terms (status of their language, standardization, education) and in the political dimension (federalism, democracy, secularity). In dealing with these aspects, this article re-examines the link with field research practice based on a single standard approach to the benefit of a “multi-site” form [Marcus, 1998] which embraces a more discursive analysis and provides a description of the background political and historic situation. “Local culture” can only be defined in relation to references which go beyond it.

Is the “Black diaspora” latin ? Ethnicity, nation and globalization in Colombia The notion of « Black diaspora » is now being mobilized to describe a dispersed community characterized by diversity, deterritorialization and mobility. In fact it fits into a particular scientific, political and cultural context, that of the English-speaking Black Americas, gives direction to the investigations of researchers and contributes to the construction of their subject : to what extent is it pertinent to transpose this concept to another situation, that of Latin America ? This article examines the « Black diaspora » with Colombia as starting point, by studying the development of globalized discourses and practices, which are expressed notably through the emergence and use of the category of “African descent”. The extension of the borders of identity is placed back in a national framework which, with the introduction of multicultural policies at the beginning of the 1990s, has favoured a complex and unfinished process, of ethnicization of society and of redefinition of the model of recognition of difference. By studying the ethnic campaigners in Colombia in their many confrontations, in a variety of places, in the face of agents involved in globalization (essentially international organizations), it can be seen that the “Black diaspora” comes down not so much to a community of belonging but rather to mechanisms of to-ing and froing between certain basic norms of action mobilized on the local, national and international scenes.

Globalized ideas and local constructions. The enhanced image of being Indian in contemporary Colombia For several years now, representation of cultures of “ethnic” or indigenous groups in terms of “wisdoms” that would be profitable to a society that is in the majority non-indigenous have been appearing in the discourses of a growing number of Colombians. This ethnic wisdom, often associated with Shamanism, would become incorporated in the life of westernized individuals, notably in spheres like physical and spiritual health, or harmonious relationships of individuals with other people in their circle. The article puts forward the hypothesis that these interpretations of local ethnic cultures are greatly influenced by an ideology that is spread to the global scale, which means that different ethnic groups in the world are the subject of the same type of image-enhancing representations.

African clothing fashion designers and “ethnic” labelling (France, West Indies, French West Africa) Since the 1990s, the “ethnic” fashion trend has been unfurling on the Western world. The attraction for the Other is reflected as much in Haute Couture collections as in commercial considerations geared to an “ethnic” market at a more popular level. Paradoxically, if Africanness can be perceived as “ethnic”, African clothes fashion designers refer only timidly to this adjective. The Author's research is based on the examination of Francophone Black women's press (September 1998- September 2004). The studies reveal the meanings that become associated with the term “ethnic” which explain the observation of an attitude of rejection of an identity-related assignation coming from the West.