Les Nations Unies et l'anthropologie appliquée : un projet de civilisation

• Auteur / Autrice : Claudine Brelet
• Direction : Pierre Erny
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Ethnologie
• Date : Soutenance en 1994
• Etablissement(s) : Université Marc Bloch (Strasbourg) (1971-2008)

Résumé

Malinowski a cherche a "retablir l'equilibre entre sciences exactes et sciences sociales". En posant les principes de sa theorie scientifique de la culture, il a degage le concept de besoins essentiels et introduit dans les sciences sociales la vision bio-dynamique qui caracterise la revolution scientifique, nee avec la theorie de la relativite au debut du siecle. Des 1942, l'ecole culturaliste anglo-saxonne a ete mobilisee pour gagner la guerre contre le nazisme et organiser la paix. L'ethnologie, ou anthropologie appliquee a donc ainsi contribue a la creation du systeme des nations unies (1945), preparee par la s. D. N. , elle-meme fruit de l'idealisme du president wilson. Soutenue ideologiquement par la declaratioin universelle des droits de l'homme (1948), grace aux efforts du francais rene cassin, son approche basee sur la satisfaction des besoins essentiels a permis de remettre en question la notion de progres technico-economique qui caracterise la modernite pour la remplacer par la notion de developpement humain et durable ou ecodeveloppement. C'est a partir de projets concus par alfred metraux (un programme d'education de base pour l'unesco) et jean-paul lebeuf (programme d'harmonisation entre medecines traditionnelles et medecine moderne pour l'oms) que les politiques de developpement se sont orientees vers l'utilisation "appropriee" des ressources locales et la prise en compte de l'interaction cybernetique entre l'homme et l'environnement. L'ecologie humaine trouve son fondement dans cette approche initiee par l'anthropologie culturelle. Temoin de la transformation que le nouveau paradigme scientifique a introduite dans l'histoire contemporaine, la technologie appropriee est, de fait, une application de l'ethnoanthropologie. Developpee d'abord a la peripherie du monde industriel (tiers-monde et communautes "alternarives"), la technologie appropriee et les nouveaux styles de vie qu'elle favorise peuvent apporter des solutions pour faciliter le passage de notre propre societe a l'ere post-industrielle - une nouvelle civilisation.

Anthropologist bronislaw malinowski aimed at filling the gap between the natural and the social sciences. Through the principles of his theory of culture, he created the concept of basic needs and introduced into the social sciences the biodynamic vision of the scientific revolution borne with einstein's theory of relativity (1905). As early as 1942, the school of cultural anthropology was mobilized to "win the war and organize the peace" (roosevelt). Thus, applied anthropology contributed to the creation of a functional system to manage the world's problems and resources, namely the u. N. System (1945) already prepared by the league of nations - itself borne from wilson's idealism (1918). Ideologically supported by the universal declaration of human rights, designed by french lawyer rene cassin, the united nations approach based on the meeting of basic needs permitted the notion of "progress" to be questioned. The idea of "progress" caracterizes modernity. The new scientific approach replaced it with the concept of "human and sustainable development" - namely "ecodevelopment". Since the projects designed by anthropologists alfred metraux (a program of basic education for unesco) and by jean-paul lebeuf (a program aiming at harmonizing traditional medicine and modern medicine for the world health organization), during the very first years of the u. N. System, developmental politics were orientated towards the appropriate use of local resources and the observation of the cybernetic interaction between humanking and its natural environment. Human ecology was founded on the scientific conceptual grounds initiated by malinowski's biodynamic theory of culture, or functionalism. Witnessing the transformation induced by the new paradigm into contemporary history, appropriate technology is, in reality, an application of cultural anthropology. It was first developed at the periphery of the industrialized world (i. E. The third world and the "alternative" communities). Appropriate technology and the new lifestyle that it allows can facilitate the transition towards post-industrialized society - namely towards a new civilization.