International workshop: Sand drawings from Vanuatu: an interdisciplinary approach (anthropology / ethnomathematics / linguistics)

In the 1980s, American mathematician Marcia Ascher analyzed, from an ethnomathematical perspective, the corpus of sand drawings collected by British anthropologists John Layard (1942) and A. Bernard Deacon (1934), bringing to light the “mathematical ideas” involved in this practice (Ascher, 1988, 1991).

Concomitantly, sand drawings were analyzed by other researchers as a traditional graphic art with—in the societies concerned—a mnemonic dimension involved in the recollection of ritual, mythological and/or environmental knowledge (Huffman 1996, Gell 1998, Zagala 2004, Rio 2005...).

In the 2000s, under the “Centre Culturel de Vanuatu” ’s impulse, the practice of sand drawing was revitalized through various cultural and educational projects (Hinge 2008, VKS 2009...). As a result of this effort, in 2008, the practice of sand drawing was added to the UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Over the past decade, new research projects have been devoted to the practice of sand drawing through different disciplinary perspectives, including those of the anthropology of memory (Baron, 2020), linguistic and cognitive anthropology (Franjieh 2018, Devylder 2022), and ethnomathematics (Da Silva 2022, Vandendriessche & Da Silva 2022, Vandendriessche 2022).

This workshop’s goal will be to

1. give a clear picture of these recent research projects and new findings, and
2. cross further different disciplinary approaches with a view to enriching our understanding of the cultural and cognitive aspects of ni-vanuatu sand drawing practices.

Worskhop program

Day 1 (17/12/2024) - Aix-Marseille Université, Campus Saint-Charles, Salle 09-051

Sand Drawing Practices from Vanuatu (South Pacific): an interdisciplinary approach

Day organised in partnership with the Oceania Research and Documentation Centre (UMR CREDO 7308 – AMU, CNRS & EHESS).

Public students (anthropology, history et philosophy of sciences, linguistics, mathématics…), researchers, teachers and every persons interested in the theme ( registration by e-mail : caroline@pacific-credo.fr)

Location : Aix-Marseille University, and videoconferencies

Schedules : 8:30 am - 5 pm

Communications will be held in English.

8h30 : welcome of the participants
9h-9h15 : Introduction of the day by Éric Vandendriessche and Alban Da Silva.
9h15-10h15 : Jacopo Baron (Vanuatu Cultural Centre), « Vanuatu sand-drawing in the early 20th Century: an historical reconstruction based on the contributions of Bernard Deacon, William Page Rowe and John Layard ».
10h15-11h15 : Simon Devylder (DDL, CNRS & Université Lyon 2), « The archipelago of meaning: methodological contributions to the comparison of Vanuatu Sand Drawings across islands ».
11h30-12h30 : Michael Franjieh (University of Surrey), « Towards a Polysemiotic Typology of Sand Drawing : comparing terminology ».

lunch break

14h15-15h15 : Alban Da Silva (Université Laval, Québec, Canada), « Coding sand-drawings in Python: what contribution to anthropological methods? »
15h15-16h15 : Éric Vandendriessche (CREDO, CNRS & AMU), « Understanding the underlying system of sand drawing practices : collaborative experiments with Ambrymese experts »
16h30-17h : General discussion

Day 2 (18/12/2024)

Research workshop - Aix-Marseille Université, Campus Saint-Charles, Salle 09-051

Attendees : Jacopo Baron, Alban Da Silva, Simon Devylder, Michael Franjieh, Éric Vandendriessche, et quelques chercheurs/chercheuses invité.e.s.

Goals This workshop is being organized in preparation of a collective and interdisciplinary research project (ANR, ERC, MITI-CNRS…).

Would you like to participate ? Contact Eric Vandendriessche : eric.vandendriessche@cnrs.fr

Schedules : 9h-12h
Location : Aix-Marseille Université – Campus Saint-Charles

Public workshop : Sand Drawing from Vanuatu initiation - Musée d'Arts Africains, Océaniens, Amérindiens

Public : Social centers groups, children leisures center (by registration).

Schedules : 14h-16h
Location MAAOA Museum , Centre de la Vieille Charité - 2, rue de la Charité - 13002 Marseille

Movie night - Cinéma Polygone étoilé
The film projection Tuan Ta Pesao : Ecritures de sable et de ficelle à l’île d’Ambrym, will be followed by a discussion (in french) with the public and Éric Vandendriessche (co-Director)

Production : Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
Directors : : Eric Vandendriessche et Camille Etul

Documentaire / Vanuatu / 49 mn / VOSTFR / 2024

This film takes place in the North of Ambrym Island, in the archipelago of Vanuatu, Melanesia. Two graphic practices - referred to locally by the same vernacular term - attract our attention: drawings drawn with a continuous line with a finger on the dusty ground of the villages or the sandy beaches, and ephemeral figures made from a loop of vegetal string. What do these "writings" of sand and string tell us about the North Ambrym society? Experts in these procedural and geometric activities, traditional chiefs, and Vanuatu teachers speak to us about these practices in their links to the environment, mythology, rituals, magical practices, and mathematics of this small corner of the world.

Location : Le Polygone étoilé, 1 rue François Massabo, 13002 Marseille