Contenu du sommaire : Cuisine, manière de table et politique

Eating in peace : banquets and citizenship in the eastern mediterranean In the Eastern Mediterranean countries, banquets are moments of conciliation of social inte­rests, previous to political conciliation, and signs of incorporation in the civic community ; by relaxing bodies, they relax social tensions. In Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, French Pro­vence, Italy and the Arab countries, all dishes are displayed at the same time, and guests are placed in a circle, so that the distance separating them is the same whatever their position in the public, social, ethnic or religious hierarchies. Eating out is a demonstration of one's citi­zenship and « national » identity, and provides an occasion for signing with partners and oppo­nents conventions and treaties certified by the quality of the food, the expense incurred, the variety and the quantity of offerings and presents.

Position and seating of guests in i7th century court society. points to consider about political power in table space Seventeenth century court table arrangements have been studied often and well. Studying them again is nevertheless interesting because, through the functioning of table space, it is possible to raise questions essential for the intelligibility of certain anthropological elements of political power. In addition to the symbolic dimension of power, we would like to take into account a dimension perceptible in the position and seating of guests imposed by ceremonial etiquette, a dimension found equally in the vocabulary of the table. Maurice Halbwachs' work is of great interest in that perspective : it highlights the role of the material components of institutional functioning, and leads to a reflection about the congruence of place in the concrete, material, physical space and position in the social and political order, in the institutional space.

Confidential exchanges. commensality in the [french] republican tradition of table ceremony In the last two centuries, the practice of public banquets has become a genuine political representation ritual. It is therefore interesting to examine the demonstrative virtues of this commensality, subordinated to precise functions. Revealing the ordering structure of such meals allows us to understand how, at equal distance from the ideal of aristocratic civility and the ascetic frugality of the Christian Last Supper, this ceremonial conviviality has shaped specific modes of sociability and mobilization ; and how this table ceremonial demonstrates a collective intimacy presented and sometimes experienced as an alternative to the relations of delegation celebrated by the development of the parliamentary state.

Cuisine and politics in india. the culinary politics of the kayastha, a scribe caste India is the home of two essential world cuisines embodying radically different philosophical principles. In the historical context of the Moghul and British Empires, these two cuisines make up a genuine political-gastronomic arena, a place of struggle and competition for the conquest of political and symbolic advantages. In the field of Hindu cooking, sanskritization, based on the observance of very specific cooking and eating rules, enables the lower castes to attempt to reach the status of the highest castes. The Muslim cooking field is by definition more secular, as in it the conquest of taste is freed from the socio-cosmic principles in which Hindu cooking confines it. It allows the expression of an ashrafization wich ennobles those who, rubbing shoul­ders with Mogul power, adopt its culinary mores. The Kayastha caste, originally a scribe caste, placed by its functions at the intersection of these two world cuisines, was able to take advantage of the gastro-political conflicts induced by the shock of Hindu and Muslim cooking and eating. Kayastha cuisine, illustrating the first inklings of a syncretic Indian cooking, thus cons­titutes a political idiom, one of the new "languages" of independent India.

Eating green. food choices and political identity : the french and the british ecologists. The public associates ecology and food habits, as if eating green was « greening » activists from the inside. Food reflects the greens' views and political preoccupations : if eating meat is an immoral act of homophagy, becoming a vegetarian is a political act. Political preferences and food tastes are bound in a reciprocal relation. Choosing a diet is a way of constructing one's identity and affirming group membership, but there are variations according to the natio­nal context and regional traditions. Anxious not to appear extremist, and suspicious of whatever may detract from political action, French Greens advocate only a balanced diet. More margi­nal, the British Greens do not seek to present a respectable image, and they need to affirm their identity in order to be recognized as political actors.

The ideological antecedents of the lega nord Since the early 1990s, the Lombard League, created and led by Umberto Bossi, has become an essential actor in the Italian political system. This fledgling party, whose earliest organizational roots can be traced to the late 1970s, seems to derive from no previous experience, and to constitute a totally new element in the Italian political universe. It is however possible to iden­tify ideological antecedents of this party in the 1940s and 1950s. They are found either within Christian Democracy, in 1945, or in a relationship of direct electoral competition with it, in 1956-1959. The present ideology of the Lega Nord is in fact an adaptation to the social and political situation of recent years of descriptions and prescriptions already present in the early years of the Italian Republic. It is therefore necessary to reconsider the Lega's present emer­gence in the light of the past failures of the forces to which it owes its heritage.

Between the bar and the parliamentary floor. the secretaries (officers) of the paris bar trainees' conference and parliamentary activity in the 19th century. Since the Restoration (1815), the Paris Bar Association Trainees Conference has been one of the agencies in which lawyers have displayed their political leadership vocation. This claim has been based on the development of know-how and skills related to the exercise of their profes­sion. These have been linked to its specific features, the professional practice of eloquence and law, and also to the apprenticeship of the particular modes of public debate and parliamentary deliberation. The "secretaries" have been the promoters of a specialized definition of political activity, while the competition for power has remained dominated by the logic of "notable" lea­dership described by Max Weber.

Reading Hall and Taylor : neo-institutionalism and local orders How is the strength of the controversies in the United States, corresponding to the rise of the "neo-institutionalist" theme in the American social sciences in the last 20 years, to be un­derstood ? Reacting to Peter Hall and Rosemary Taylor's article on "Political Science and the Three Neo-Institutionalisms" [ibid. 47 (3-4), June-August 1997], the author underlines that the reality aimed at by this "rediscovery" of the role of institutions as an independent variable in sociology and political science must be related to the three different meanings of "institutions". Focusing on sociological institutionalism, he criticizes its propensity to overestimate non-instru­mental rationality and its difficulty in recognizing the irreducible heterogeneity of the social field.

Revival or obsolescence ? War today The study of war has seen significant developments in recent years. Three approaches claim that war tends to disappear. They focus on the multiplication of democracies, on the normative devaluation of armed conflicts and on the imbalance between the prohibitive costs of war and its uncertain gains. The author criticizes the obsolescence theses and suggests amendments meant at reaching a better understanding of war in internatio­nal politics : understanding the exclusion of certain actors and their desire to transform the status quo, identifying the political and social mechanisms which enable expansionist or cooperative myths to influence foreign policy, and emphasizing the confrontation of different rationalities in international politics.