The prehistory of the others Anthropological and archaeological perspectives on non-Western pasts

Anne-Christine Taylor, musée du quai Branly 
Paul Salmona et Nathan Schlanger, Inrap 

Partnership : Le Monde, Sciences et Avenir, Le Journal des Arts et France Culture

Tuesday January 18^th

9.30 

Opening

Stéphane Martin, Quai Branly Museum 
Jean-Paul Jacob, Inrap 
 

Archaeology and social anthropology

In English-speaking countries archaeology is considered to be a field of anthropology while in France the discipline is associated with history and the history of art. This contrast provides us with an additional source of analysis and interpretation in our endeavour to apprehend "Other Prehistories”. 
Chaired by Anne-Christine Taylor, Quai Branly Museum 

10 00 
The Prehistory of the Others: from deny to challenge 
Alain Testart, cnrs, Laboratoire d’anthropologie sociale 

10.30 
Only Apes have our so-called Human Nature 
Marshall Sahlins, The University of Chicago 

11.00 
Kernels of imagination and symbolic dimensions of human relationships 
Maurice Godelier, ehess 
11.30 
Lascaux or the birth of "non occidental” art 
Margaret Conkey, University of California Berkeley 

12 00 
Ceramic traditions and social identity in Africa: a different history or straight History? 
Olivier Gosselain, Centre d’anthropologie culturelle , Université libre de Bruxelles 

12.30 
Debate 
 

Societies in their natural environment

Providing meat and raw materials for hunter-gatherers, the natural environment gives populations certain stability. With the domestication of plants and animals, accompanied by sedentarization and urbanization, the exploitation of the environment increases–as do the risks and the upheavals. 
Chaired by Danièle Lavallée, cnrs 

14.30 
A long-term perspective on the co-evolution of humans and their natural environment” 
Sander Van der Leuuw, Arizona State University, Tempe 

15.00 
What part did agricuture really play in the social and political structure of early Amazonia ? 
Eduardo Góes Neves, Universidade de São Paulo 

15.30 
Little Foot at Sterkfontein (South Africa): geoarcheology of a "hunted hunter” 
Laurent Bruxelles, Inrap, umr 5608 

16.00 
The Early ceramic complexes of Saint-Louis on the Lower Maroni River, French Guiana 
Martijn Van den Bel, Inrap 

16.30 
The use of shells among pre-Columbian societies of the Lesser Antilles: elements of the technical, social and cultural systems 
Nathalie Serrand, Inrap,  umr 7209 

17.00 
The a-temporal figure of the "steppe nomad” in inner Asia 
Carole Ferret, cnrs, Laboratoire d’anthropologie sociale 

17.30 
Debate 
 

Wednesday January19^th

Societies and their objects

Traditionally considered to be a simple marker of time or an indication of "progress”, material culture has in the last thirty years been given a central place in both anthropological and archaeological disciplines. Through the study of "operational sequences”, material culture provides us with an insight into the technological, economic and social aspects of the past. 
Chaired by Pascal Depaepe, Inrap 

9.30 
Pincevent between archeology and anthropology 
Claudine Karlin, cnrs, umr 7041 

10.00 
Soft hammer percussion in the East African Acheulean industries 
Sophie Clément, Inrap, umr 7055 

10.30 
Lithic experimentation in Blombos Cave (South Africa) and operational sequences 
Vincent Mourre, Inrap, Laboratoire traces, umr 5608 

11.00 
Understanding the megaliths of Senegambia: genealogy of the explanatory models 
Augustin Holl, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 

11.30 
The cultural unification of the Nile Valley during the 4th millennium 
Nathalie Buchez, Inrap, Laboratoire traces, umr 5608 

12.00 
To access the past of a region : The material culture of Neolithic and Protohistoric sites in dunes context in Senegal 
Sandrine Deschamps, Inrap, umr 7041 
 

The ideal and the material

With their funerary practices and feasts, as well as their agricultural techniques and architecture, human groups integrate their symbolic activities into their everyday lives. Power, cohesion, difference, identity... a multitude of abstract qualities and conditions are expressed in the material and ideal dimensions of societies past and present. 
Chaired by Maurice Godelier, ehess 

14.00 
Objects for thinking what cannot be said. Converging theories of material culture studies 
Pierre Lemonnier, Credo, université de Provence 

15.00 
Hamlets shared by the living and the dead:  funerary practices of the first sedentary societies in the Middle East 
Fanny Bocquentin, cnrs, umr 7041 

15.30 
Material culture and symbol-objects : the question of nomadism in the steppes at the beginning of the 1st millennium 
Guilhem André, musée Guimet and Hélène Martin, Inrap 

16.00 
Funerary rites among the Chachapoyas of the Peruvian Andes 
Sonia Guillén, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima 

16.30 
A marine sanctuary in Neolithic Arabia 
Vincent Charpentier, Inrap and Sophie Méry, cnrs 

17.00 
Decorated ignams among the Abelams of Papua New Guinea. The Operational sequence of a "total social object” 
Ludovic Coupaye, University College London 

17.30 
Conclusion 
Michaël Rowlands, University College London 

18h 
Debate