Serge Tcherkezoff présentera une conférence et une discussion à l’Université La Sapienza (Roma-1)
Lundi 19 mai et mardi 20 mai
Discutant dans la conférence
Alex Golub : Changing research perspectives on the Porgera gold mine
The anthropology of mining has long struggled with the ethics of research. Mining can produce wealth, conflict, inequality, and pollution, forcing the anthropologists who study them to confront moral dilemmas which other researchers can avoid. This talk outlines the challenges that one researcher, Dr. Golub, faced in the course of twenty five years studying the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea. Over time, changes in the Porgera valley (Papua New Guinea) directed research in different directions, requiring the anthropologist to be flexible in their scholarly interest. In particular, this talk introduced the concept of ‘kuleana anthropology’ developed at the University of Hawai‘i. In Hawaiian Kuleana means ‘the obligations that come from connection’ and in this talk Dr. Golub will describe how he used kuleana anthropology to navigate the complex ethical and theoretical challenges posed by studying mining in Porgera.
Serge Tcherkezoff : « Captain Cook, Hawaiian god Lono, the notion of « divinity » and the « Sahlins-Obeyesekere debate
In his attempt to understand Cook’s death in Hawaii, Sahlins was interested to understand the connection that Hawaiians did between the English Captain and their God Lono. Sahlins understood that, for Hawaiians, « Cook indeed became the image of Lono ». Obeyesekere pretended wrongly that Sahlins said that « the natives believed that he [Cook] was their god Lono. » But Polynesian gods were visible only through their incarnation into man-made images. How do we know ? Can we discuss Polynesian notions of « divinity » as far back as in 1778 ?
