Papers by Katiana Le Mentec
Online (free access) : http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0920203X17736508
This article... more Online (free access) : http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0920203X17736508
This article discusses state-led heritagization processes in Beichuan and Wenchuan Counties, two Qiang ethnic minority areas severely affected by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (China). Certain destroyed landscapes were preserved and turned into earthquake relic sites. In particular, the former Beichuan County seat was entirely heritagized for memorial, economic, and patriotic education purposes, causing an emotional conflict with locals still affected by loss and trauma. At the same time, Qiang cultural practices were hastily registered as national and international intangible cultural heritage, while reconstructed Qiang villages were transformed into heritage tourism destinations. These initiatives tend to reshape Qiang culture elements into fetishized commodities. Allocating massive funds to historically marginalized regions, these post-disaster heritagization programmes aimed at boosting economic recovery, as well as demonstrating state power, national unity and solidarity. Implemented using a top–down method, they appear insensitive to the affected population's trauma and the sociohistorical context from which the newly heritagized elements originate. The disaster and Qiang culture heritage tourism not only failed to bring about sustainable economic development to the earthquake-stricken areas, but also ignored to a large extent the initial goal of 'post-disaster cultural recovery' and the virtues of cultural heritage in recovery processes.
Le corps morcelé de Zhang Fei. Allégorie d’espaces bouleversés en amont du barrage des Trois Gorges
Cet article examine les enjeux territoriaux dans lesquels est impliquée une légende locale portan... more Cet article examine les enjeux territoriaux dans lesquels est impliquée une légende locale portant sur le corps morcelé d’un héros divinisé. Le corps de Zhang Fei constitue une référence culturelle ancienne et profondément signifiante localement. En amont du barrage des Trois Gorges, ce motif fort plastique est saisi par les habitants et les autorités de Yunyang tant pour s’exprimer sur différentes facettes des bouleversements territoriaux que pour y faire face.
Perception of continuities in time of upheaval. Glimpses of a scholar debate in Anthropology.
This paper aims to question social conceptions and perception of “continuity” in contexts of uphe... more This paper aims to question social conceptions and perception of “continuity” in contexts of upheaval.
The philosopher Jullien (2002) claims the tendency to deny or diminish change is a specific feature of the “Chinese thought”, “able to overtake ruptures and breaks into continuous continuity”. For Laplantine (2008), this “East asian” way of dissolving the exception of the Event into an adaptation movement is ultimately different from western conceptions. While many recent works – on Chinese religion (Buddhism, Taoism) for instance, bring our attention to such contemporary tendencies, can we really consider a such simplistic dual cultural differentiation? Study of disasters allow us to consider various cultural contexts and reflect on the question.
Whether it is sudden (an earthquake) or prepared (the construction of a Dam reservoir), an upheaval can be socially understood through various interpretation frameworks. One of them constitutes in denying the singularity of the event and reducing the outstandingness of the changes induced. According to anthropologist Marc Augé (2008), the way of categorizing “events” in the “already known” can be observed in all societies – humans preferring the security of known environments and situations. This process, named “Immanence” by Augé, has been identified in many studies related to disaster. Examples are presented in the work of Manceron (2008) on the french avian flu, Clavairolle (2008) on a french village fire disaster, Fogel (1997), Hémond (2003) and Gessat-Anstett (2007) on Dam reservoir creations in Nubia, Mexico and Russia. During fieldwork undertook since 2004 upstream of the Three Gorges Dam (China) I observed many ways local people and officials paralleled the ecological, territorial and social transformations induced by the Three Gorges Dam Reservoir with legendary or historical events – whether they were considered good or bad. I identified them as resilience processes. For Jeudy (1990) including a catastrophic event into a kind of continuity may allow people to conjure the disaster, to disempower it and suppress the fear of the unknown; it is “a way to give meaning through the past in order to think the possibility of a future”.
In China, as in the “Western world”, ways to think transformations are multiple and change with time, but does that mean that anthropologists working on upheavals and disasters should get ride of the concept of “immanence” proposed by Augé? This notion might allow a better understanding of the mediation between such events and the population they affect. What could this concept bring to the table for conceptualizing the reality ethnographers observe on the field? Far from aiming to present a definite answer to these questions, this paper merely wishes to launch a discussion on the topic with scholars participating to the workshop who can confront experiences related to people’s framing of upheavals and disasters.
Interprétations plurielles d’une migration planifiée. Des usages de l’histoire et des légendes en amont du barrage des Trois Gorges (Chine)
Yunyang County (Chongqing) was deeply affected by the population’s resettlement induced by the Th... more Yunyang County (Chongqing) was deeply affected by the population’s resettlement induced by the Three Gorges Dam. Even when this process had barely begun, numerous interpretations mobilizing historical or legendary elements from the past had already been generated. Relying on ethnographic fieldworks developed in Yunyang from 2004 to 2008, this article analyses the use and production of the past, by local authorities and population in this context of planned migration. On the one hand Yunyang’s governor propagated the idea of a recurrent experience of migration over the last three thousand years, suggesting it founded the regional culture and identity. On the other hand, people activated and constructed meaningful local references to present the rise of water, the splintering of the social network and the separation with the native land as disasters. The disruption is a continuous feature in these discourses, legitimizing or criticizing the national project. These discourses bestow the references of the past with quite different values that never match.
Chongqing Museums after the Upheaval: Exhibitions in the Wake of the Three Gorges Dam Migration
In the past twenty years, the Chongqing Municipality in China has experienced major social and te... more In the past twenty years, the Chongqing Municipality in China has experienced major social and territorial transformations. Created in 1997 as an autonomous administrative entity, it was partly formed to address the massive migration caused by the building of the Three Gorges Dam. This article explores how museums in the municipality’s cities of Chongqing, Wanzhou and Yunyang were developed after the Dam’s disruptions. Museums built after social, territorial or political disruptions have been analyzed as potential pedagogical and resilience platforms or springboards for redefinitions of the past. The article highlights how these processes intermingle in these new museums. Extensive ethnographic fieldwork identified the museum techniques that aimed to cope with the recent changes. Innovations included presentations of the pain suffered by migrants, and the reinvention of regional history based on former migrations and an ancient kingdom elevated to serve as the cradle of Chongqing culture.
De la tour du Chien jaune perdu au musée de la catastrophe. Un « fantasme » pour penser l’universel et le local à l’Expo Shanghai 2010
Dès 2006, les médias français font l’écho d’un projet proposé par l’architecte Scali et le plasti... more Dès 2006, les médias français font l’écho d’un projet proposé par l’architecte Scali et le plasticien Aurèle pour l’Expo Shanghai 2010. La tour du Chien jaune perdu est un bâtiment en forme de bull-terrier hébergeant un musée dénonçant et annonçant les catastrophes. Bien en amont de l’Expo, ce projet a eu une existence publique mais n’a pas été réalisé. Cet article analyse son parcours et examine les différentes manières dont cet objet architectural et muséal a été présenté, les réactions qu’il a suscitées ainsi que les enjeux au sein desquels il s’est intégré. Dans un premier temps, le texte montre que la forme architecturale et que le message dont elle est porteuse en a fait, en France, un objet considéré comme approprié dans le cadre d’une exposition universelle dont sont attendues des formes démesurées et des discours critiques à la portée universaliste. C’est ensuite le point de vue chinois qui est traité. Le texte décrypte comment le comité d’organisation de l’Expo a saisit l’extravagance architecturale de ce projet pour stimuler la « construction de la culture artistique de Shanghai », avant l’Expo. Dans un troisième temps, l’article discute l’œuvre qu’Aurèle réalisa finalement pour l’Expo au pavillon de la France : un chien végétal. Dans ce cadre, l’œuvre fut réappropriée comme un objet ludique vidé de son contenu pédagogique et contestataire. La conclusion propose une réflexion sur les “fantasmes” de l’exposition universelle, à la fois sur l’existence virtuelle de projets architecturaux et réflexifs et les malentendus en présence lors de ces rencontres internationales.
The Three Gorges Dam and the demiurges: the story of a failed contemporary myth elaboration in China
This article analyses the elaboration and modes of diffusion of official narratives about the pas... more This article analyses the elaboration and modes of diffusion of official narratives about the past and the present following the construction of the Chinese Three Gorges Dam (1993–2008). After the vote on the Three Gorges Project, alongside a myth of progress, a narrative relying upon ancient legends linking the Dam to the past was widely transmitted by the official discourse. The aim of this paper is to analyse this narrative, and in particular the parallel developed between the Dam’s construction and the myth of Yu the Great, a famous hero-demiurge. The first two parts of the article are dedicated to the main facets of Yu’s myth associated with the Dam: the political control brought by successful water management and the demiurgic action of reshaping the territory. The contemporary uses of songs, poems, metaphors, statue settings, tourist sites, temples, and public engravings are emphasized. The last part of the essay introduces a shift in the government discourse and focuses on the population’s reactions to the official narrative. It presents the lack of efficiency of the official narrative and the cultural tools (such as rumors and legends) mobilized by the people to propose their own interpretation of the Dam. The conclusion reflects on issues related to the use of the past in the context of big construction works: How efficient are myths and legends in conveying positive or negative interpretations of such structures? Can these tools be involved in processes of resilience? This work relies on qualitative long-term ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Wuhan (Hubei), Chengdu (Sichuan) and the Three Gorges Area (Chongqing) between 2002 and 2014. The data also includes printed and electronic (internet) media.
Barrage des Trois Gorges : exposer le monde local après l’immersion. Genèse et programme du premier musée de Yunyang.
The building of the Three Gorges Dam (China) produced dramatic changes in the landscape of Yunyan... more The building of the Three Gorges Dam (China) produced dramatic changes in the landscape of Yunyang (Chongqing) district, China, displacing part of the population and leading to the reconstruction of whole towns. Over the years, local government developed a number of museographic exhibitions devoted to these processes. This article explores two such projects, one of which has been completed in 2012. It explores the inception of the two projects, considers their respective programs and looks at the role of local politicians. The attribution of meaning to their architectural structure is read as revelatory of attempts by local authorities to re-imagine their district after these profound changes. The article proceeds to analyze two new concepts developed by local authorities, intended to justify the forced displacement of the population and commemorate the inhabitants’ patriotic spirit. It concludes by examining the place of regional ecology in these cultural institutions and efforts by local authorities to present a local world in which past and present form a seamless whole.
La création du barrage des Trois-Gorges a entraîné dans le district de Yunyang (Chongqing) de profondes transformations du paysage, le déplacement d’une partie de la population et la reconstruction de villes. Le gouvernement local a élaboré au fil des ans des projets muséographiques visant à exposer ces processus. Cet article met en regard deux initiatives, dont l’une est en cours de réalisation. Il présente la genèse de ces projets et compare leur programme en considérant le rôle des personnalités politiques. Le sens attribué à leur architecture est analysé comme un élément révélateur de la manière dont les autorités locales cherchent à situer le district géo-politiquement après les bouleversements. L’article se poursuit par l’analyse de deux nouveaux concepts exposés au musée et conçus par le gouverneur local dans le but de légitimer le déplacement forcé et de commémorer l’esprit patriotique des habitants. La conclusion traite du discours portant sur la présence de l’écologie régionale dans ces institutions culturelles et sur la volonté des autorités de présenter un monde local unissant le passé au présent.
Dossier : Pouvoir politique, 2010
This article presents the stakes of a local deity (Zhang Fei) and a mythological god (Yu the grea... more This article presents the stakes of a local deity (Zhang Fei) and a mythological god (Yu the great) in the context of the consequences of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. Zhang Fei is a national heroes and a deity in the Yunyang County, whom temple was delocalized in its entirety thirty kilometers upstream to avoid submersion. Yu the Great is the demiurge who mythically shaped the Three Gorges by cutting the mountain with a hatchet in order to control a flood of water. The images and narratives related to theses two characters are used by national and authorities of the Yunyang County to convey specific interpretations of the Dam and its consequences. The paper presents in particular rhetorics regarding the environmental changes, the topographical transformations and the forced migration.
Au cœur de la région des Trois Gorges, Yunyang subit les conséquences de la construction du bar... more Au cœur de la région des Trois Gorges, Yunyang subit les conséquences de la construction du barrage telles la submersion des terres agricoles, le déplacement des populations, la reconstruction des villes et villages ainsi que la délocalisation de sites historiques tel que le temple de Zhang Fei classé au patrimoine national. Les vestiges historiques et religieux et les cultes rendus aux divinités locales sont au centre d’enjeux économiques, idéologiques et symboliques. Entre politiques locales de développement et initiatives des habitants, ces repères communautaires fondamentaux font l’objet d’investissements et de réorientations multiples. Au cours de l’épisode traumatique que traverse la région, ils s’avèrent particulièrement cruciaux
pour les repères fragilisés des habitants.
Book Reviews by Katiana Le Mentec
China Perspectives, 68: 68, 2006
China Perspectives, 2008/2 : 114-6
Talks by Katiana Le Mentec
Dealing with the Event. Dialogues with French Anthropology
The lecture explores theoretical ways through which the topic of the “ event ” has been addre... more The lecture explores theoretical ways through which the topic of the “ event ” has been addressed from an anthropological perspective. The goal is to present this domain of research which has been quite lively in France in the last sixty years. We will discuss “ events ”anthropologists are interested in: which kinds of study cases were developed, what topics were analyzed and how, in a dialogue with other disciplines, anthropology proposed several ways to theorize the event. The lecture will look at this field of research from various point of views in order to have a global glimpse of what can anthropologists learn from studying events.
The lecture is dedicated to an audience interested in Social and cultural anthropology, in Social change and disasters, as well as in the sphere or French academic research.
The lecture includes Katiana Le Mentec ’ s fieldwork and analysis on the consequences of the Three Gorges Dam and the Three Gorges Migration, taken as “ events ” . She will present her long term research program on transformative effects of territorial upheavals on socio-cultural conceptions, perceptions and representations, in the Sichuan-Chongqing Area.
Quand l'eau et la terre menacent le patrimoine : mesures et programmes officiels en contexte catastrophique en Chine
A museum in rural China: Ethnographic glimpses of local people visiting experiences.
Yunyang (Chongqing Municipality) is a mountainous and rural county which was deeply affected by t... more Yunyang (Chongqing Municipality) is a mountainous and rural county which was deeply affected by the rise of water upstream of the Three Gorges Dam in China. From 1992 to 2000, the county seat was reconstructed in its entirety thirty kilometers upstream to avoid complete submersion. The composite local population of the city constitutes the main visitors of the first museum ever built in this county. Inaugurated in 2012 and managed by the bureau of Culture, the museum was a part of a large urban planning program including heritage parks, garden and squares, achievements of a new local party secretary. The site displays ancient history through items excavated by the Three Gorges Dam heritage protection program, but also recent local events like the Chinese Revolution and the consequences of the Three Gorges Dam in Yunyang. After shortly recalling the creation process of the museum and its exhibition program, the presentation will focus on the local people practices of the site: what do people think about the museum? In what social context do they come? What are the hot spots of the exhibition and what kind of interaction to they stimulate? The data on visitors experiences were collected during a one month ethnographic fieldwork developed during June/July 2014 including observations, participating visits, interviews and casual conversations.
Audiencing processes in a Chinese local museum : the daily use of an heritage site after an upheaval
30 years of Interaction between actors involved in the Three Gorges Dam Project: focus on meaningful ethnographic portraits.
In a changing political context such as in China, how were actors involved in debates surrounding... more In a changing political context such as in China, how were actors involved in debates surroundings such a big hydraulic project as the Three Gorges Dam? What were the impacts of this project on the people’s means of action in this non-democratic environment?
In the 1980’s, the Three Gorges Dam was open to public debate, but after 1989, in Mainland China, no more contestation was allowed. The project was voted in 1992 and achieved by 2009 - a period of great soci-eco-political change.
This paper discusses various actors involved or reacting to this hydroelectric project: from international institutions and firms, to national officials, environmentalists, scholars or journalists and local people affected by its consequences. We aim at presenting the evolution of these actors’ interactions throughout the 30 years of the project implementation, a time witnessing new means of communication (like Internet), new actors (like lawyers, and NGO) and an increase of people awareness of their rights.
Relying on intensive fieldwork and data collected from 2000 to 2014, we will present an overview of this evolution through portraits of representative actors.
The first part analyses national and international actor’s motives and means of action before and after 1989. In a second part, examining three districts upstream of the Dam we show the gap between contexts, and emphases the specific means, legal or not, that local people used to raise their grievances. The last part considers religious practices, legends and geomancy as subsidiary and meaningful tools used by people to participate in the general debate.
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Papers by Katiana Le Mentec
This article discusses state-led heritagization processes in Beichuan and Wenchuan Counties, two Qiang ethnic minority areas severely affected by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (China). Certain destroyed landscapes were preserved and turned into earthquake relic sites. In particular, the former Beichuan County seat was entirely heritagized for memorial, economic, and patriotic education purposes, causing an emotional conflict with locals still affected by loss and trauma. At the same time, Qiang cultural practices were hastily registered as national and international intangible cultural heritage, while reconstructed Qiang villages were transformed into heritage tourism destinations. These initiatives tend to reshape Qiang culture elements into fetishized commodities. Allocating massive funds to historically marginalized regions, these post-disaster heritagization programmes aimed at boosting economic recovery, as well as demonstrating state power, national unity and solidarity. Implemented using a top–down method, they appear insensitive to the affected population's trauma and the sociohistorical context from which the newly heritagized elements originate. The disaster and Qiang culture heritage tourism not only failed to bring about sustainable economic development to the earthquake-stricken areas, but also ignored to a large extent the initial goal of 'post-disaster cultural recovery' and the virtues of cultural heritage in recovery processes.
The philosopher Jullien (2002) claims the tendency to deny or diminish change is a specific feature of the “Chinese thought”, “able to overtake ruptures and breaks into continuous continuity”. For Laplantine (2008), this “East asian” way of dissolving the exception of the Event into an adaptation movement is ultimately different from western conceptions. While many recent works – on Chinese religion (Buddhism, Taoism) for instance, bring our attention to such contemporary tendencies, can we really consider a such simplistic dual cultural differentiation? Study of disasters allow us to consider various cultural contexts and reflect on the question.
Whether it is sudden (an earthquake) or prepared (the construction of a Dam reservoir), an upheaval can be socially understood through various interpretation frameworks. One of them constitutes in denying the singularity of the event and reducing the outstandingness of the changes induced. According to anthropologist Marc Augé (2008), the way of categorizing “events” in the “already known” can be observed in all societies – humans preferring the security of known environments and situations. This process, named “Immanence” by Augé, has been identified in many studies related to disaster. Examples are presented in the work of Manceron (2008) on the french avian flu, Clavairolle (2008) on a french village fire disaster, Fogel (1997), Hémond (2003) and Gessat-Anstett (2007) on Dam reservoir creations in Nubia, Mexico and Russia. During fieldwork undertook since 2004 upstream of the Three Gorges Dam (China) I observed many ways local people and officials paralleled the ecological, territorial and social transformations induced by the Three Gorges Dam Reservoir with legendary or historical events – whether they were considered good or bad. I identified them as resilience processes. For Jeudy (1990) including a catastrophic event into a kind of continuity may allow people to conjure the disaster, to disempower it and suppress the fear of the unknown; it is “a way to give meaning through the past in order to think the possibility of a future”.
In China, as in the “Western world”, ways to think transformations are multiple and change with time, but does that mean that anthropologists working on upheavals and disasters should get ride of the concept of “immanence” proposed by Augé? This notion might allow a better understanding of the mediation between such events and the population they affect. What could this concept bring to the table for conceptualizing the reality ethnographers observe on the field? Far from aiming to present a definite answer to these questions, this paper merely wishes to launch a discussion on the topic with scholars participating to the workshop who can confront experiences related to people’s framing of upheavals and disasters.
La création du barrage des Trois-Gorges a entraîné dans le district de Yunyang (Chongqing) de profondes transformations du paysage, le déplacement d’une partie de la population et la reconstruction de villes. Le gouvernement local a élaboré au fil des ans des projets muséographiques visant à exposer ces processus. Cet article met en regard deux initiatives, dont l’une est en cours de réalisation. Il présente la genèse de ces projets et compare leur programme en considérant le rôle des personnalités politiques. Le sens attribué à leur architecture est analysé comme un élément révélateur de la manière dont les autorités locales cherchent à situer le district géo-politiquement après les bouleversements. L’article se poursuit par l’analyse de deux nouveaux concepts exposés au musée et conçus par le gouverneur local dans le but de légitimer le déplacement forcé et de commémorer l’esprit patriotique des habitants. La conclusion traite du discours portant sur la présence de l’écologie régionale dans ces institutions culturelles et sur la volonté des autorités de présenter un monde local unissant le passé au présent.
pour les repères fragilisés des habitants.
Book Reviews by Katiana Le Mentec
Talks by Katiana Le Mentec
The lecture is dedicated to an audience interested in Social and cultural anthropology, in Social change and disasters, as well as in the sphere or French academic research.
The lecture includes Katiana Le Mentec ’ s fieldwork and analysis on the consequences of the Three Gorges Dam and the Three Gorges Migration, taken as “ events ” . She will present her long term research program on transformative effects of territorial upheavals on socio-cultural conceptions, perceptions and representations, in the Sichuan-Chongqing Area.
In the 1980’s, the Three Gorges Dam was open to public debate, but after 1989, in Mainland China, no more contestation was allowed. The project was voted in 1992 and achieved by 2009 - a period of great soci-eco-political change.
This paper discusses various actors involved or reacting to this hydroelectric project: from international institutions and firms, to national officials, environmentalists, scholars or journalists and local people affected by its consequences. We aim at presenting the evolution of these actors’ interactions throughout the 30 years of the project implementation, a time witnessing new means of communication (like Internet), new actors (like lawyers, and NGO) and an increase of people awareness of their rights.
Relying on intensive fieldwork and data collected from 2000 to 2014, we will present an overview of this evolution through portraits of representative actors.
The first part analyses national and international actor’s motives and means of action before and after 1989. In a second part, examining three districts upstream of the Dam we show the gap between contexts, and emphases the specific means, legal or not, that local people used to raise their grievances. The last part considers religious practices, legends and geomancy as subsidiary and meaningful tools used by people to participate in the general debate.
This article discusses state-led heritagization processes in Beichuan and Wenchuan Counties, two Qiang ethnic minority areas severely affected by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (China). Certain destroyed landscapes were preserved and turned into earthquake relic sites. In particular, the former Beichuan County seat was entirely heritagized for memorial, economic, and patriotic education purposes, causing an emotional conflict with locals still affected by loss and trauma. At the same time, Qiang cultural practices were hastily registered as national and international intangible cultural heritage, while reconstructed Qiang villages were transformed into heritage tourism destinations. These initiatives tend to reshape Qiang culture elements into fetishized commodities. Allocating massive funds to historically marginalized regions, these post-disaster heritagization programmes aimed at boosting economic recovery, as well as demonstrating state power, national unity and solidarity. Implemented using a top–down method, they appear insensitive to the affected population's trauma and the sociohistorical context from which the newly heritagized elements originate. The disaster and Qiang culture heritage tourism not only failed to bring about sustainable economic development to the earthquake-stricken areas, but also ignored to a large extent the initial goal of 'post-disaster cultural recovery' and the virtues of cultural heritage in recovery processes.
The philosopher Jullien (2002) claims the tendency to deny or diminish change is a specific feature of the “Chinese thought”, “able to overtake ruptures and breaks into continuous continuity”. For Laplantine (2008), this “East asian” way of dissolving the exception of the Event into an adaptation movement is ultimately different from western conceptions. While many recent works – on Chinese religion (Buddhism, Taoism) for instance, bring our attention to such contemporary tendencies, can we really consider a such simplistic dual cultural differentiation? Study of disasters allow us to consider various cultural contexts and reflect on the question.
Whether it is sudden (an earthquake) or prepared (the construction of a Dam reservoir), an upheaval can be socially understood through various interpretation frameworks. One of them constitutes in denying the singularity of the event and reducing the outstandingness of the changes induced. According to anthropologist Marc Augé (2008), the way of categorizing “events” in the “already known” can be observed in all societies – humans preferring the security of known environments and situations. This process, named “Immanence” by Augé, has been identified in many studies related to disaster. Examples are presented in the work of Manceron (2008) on the french avian flu, Clavairolle (2008) on a french village fire disaster, Fogel (1997), Hémond (2003) and Gessat-Anstett (2007) on Dam reservoir creations in Nubia, Mexico and Russia. During fieldwork undertook since 2004 upstream of the Three Gorges Dam (China) I observed many ways local people and officials paralleled the ecological, territorial and social transformations induced by the Three Gorges Dam Reservoir with legendary or historical events – whether they were considered good or bad. I identified them as resilience processes. For Jeudy (1990) including a catastrophic event into a kind of continuity may allow people to conjure the disaster, to disempower it and suppress the fear of the unknown; it is “a way to give meaning through the past in order to think the possibility of a future”.
In China, as in the “Western world”, ways to think transformations are multiple and change with time, but does that mean that anthropologists working on upheavals and disasters should get ride of the concept of “immanence” proposed by Augé? This notion might allow a better understanding of the mediation between such events and the population they affect. What could this concept bring to the table for conceptualizing the reality ethnographers observe on the field? Far from aiming to present a definite answer to these questions, this paper merely wishes to launch a discussion on the topic with scholars participating to the workshop who can confront experiences related to people’s framing of upheavals and disasters.
La création du barrage des Trois-Gorges a entraîné dans le district de Yunyang (Chongqing) de profondes transformations du paysage, le déplacement d’une partie de la population et la reconstruction de villes. Le gouvernement local a élaboré au fil des ans des projets muséographiques visant à exposer ces processus. Cet article met en regard deux initiatives, dont l’une est en cours de réalisation. Il présente la genèse de ces projets et compare leur programme en considérant le rôle des personnalités politiques. Le sens attribué à leur architecture est analysé comme un élément révélateur de la manière dont les autorités locales cherchent à situer le district géo-politiquement après les bouleversements. L’article se poursuit par l’analyse de deux nouveaux concepts exposés au musée et conçus par le gouverneur local dans le but de légitimer le déplacement forcé et de commémorer l’esprit patriotique des habitants. La conclusion traite du discours portant sur la présence de l’écologie régionale dans ces institutions culturelles et sur la volonté des autorités de présenter un monde local unissant le passé au présent.
pour les repères fragilisés des habitants.
The lecture is dedicated to an audience interested in Social and cultural anthropology, in Social change and disasters, as well as in the sphere or French academic research.
The lecture includes Katiana Le Mentec ’ s fieldwork and analysis on the consequences of the Three Gorges Dam and the Three Gorges Migration, taken as “ events ” . She will present her long term research program on transformative effects of territorial upheavals on socio-cultural conceptions, perceptions and representations, in the Sichuan-Chongqing Area.
In the 1980’s, the Three Gorges Dam was open to public debate, but after 1989, in Mainland China, no more contestation was allowed. The project was voted in 1992 and achieved by 2009 - a period of great soci-eco-political change.
This paper discusses various actors involved or reacting to this hydroelectric project: from international institutions and firms, to national officials, environmentalists, scholars or journalists and local people affected by its consequences. We aim at presenting the evolution of these actors’ interactions throughout the 30 years of the project implementation, a time witnessing new means of communication (like Internet), new actors (like lawyers, and NGO) and an increase of people awareness of their rights.
Relying on intensive fieldwork and data collected from 2000 to 2014, we will present an overview of this evolution through portraits of representative actors.
The first part analyses national and international actor’s motives and means of action before and after 1989. In a second part, examining three districts upstream of the Dam we show the gap between contexts, and emphases the specific means, legal or not, that local people used to raise their grievances. The last part considers religious practices, legends and geomancy as subsidiary and meaningful tools used by people to participate in the general debate.
This paper will show examples of the processes that present the Dam, as providing the people with not only modernization but also with an opportunity to renew with the tradition and to remain, even to a greater extent than before, linked to their past.
First, two local government discourses will be considered. One, developed since 1992, is presenting the county seat delocalization as a “natural return” to the original location of the county site, a thousand years ago. A more recent one, developed by the County governor in 2003, incorporates the current Three Gorges Dam forced migration in a broader “regional tradition” based on “recurring migrations”.
Second, the paper will present two local government actions aiming to show to the people of Yunyang that they haven’t actually lost the submerged sites. The authorities are trying to “integrate” the old places in the new county seat. For example, toponyms of the old county seat and its environment have been included in the new town. Also, a park has been created in the new county seat. It includes the Yunyang heritage that have been “protected by delocalization” through the national Three Gorges Dam Heritage preservation’ project. According to the local official discourse, Yunyang people can still reach the submerged places, and the past experienced memories can still be access through this new park.
In conclusion, the paper will give a glimpse on the reactions of Yunyang county seat residents to theses official discourses and actions, that have been so far observed.