1. Current position
• Researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) (full-time position since 2006)
habilitated to supervise research (HDR)
2. Current Research Interests
• About Anthropology:
Anthropology of religion––Anthropology of Writing––Ethno-Anthropology (Theories, methodology, Epistemology)––Ethnopolitics––Media Anthropology and Anthropology of mediation––Metaphysics––Ritualism and sacrifice rites (bloody rites)––Sino Anthropology--Writing and orality
• About China:
Chinese Religions––Mediumnism––Rites–– Shamanism and neoshamanism––Transmission––Yi people (Yi Nationality)––Voice (orality)––Chinese Writings --Zomia
• About transdisciplinary topics:
Architecture––Metaphysics––Museum (museology, museography)––Patrimonalisation––Transmission––Writing and orality––World Expos
3. Education
• University of Paris Ouest-Nanterre, France
2003. Ph. D. (summa cum laude), Ethnology, Anthropology. Dissertation director: Brigitte Baptandier (CNRS).
• School for Advance Studies in the Social Sciences (École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)), Paris, France
2017. Habilitation thesis (monographical), Ethnology, Anthropology. Supervisor: Prof. Descola (Collège de France).
4. Employment history
• Research Assistant at the University of Paris Ouest-Nanterre (1999-2004)• Researcher at the CNRS (Level 2) at the School for Advance Stdies in the Social Sciences––EHESS, Paris (2006-2008)
• Researcher at the CNRS (Level 2) at the Centre for Himalayan Studies, Paris-Villejuif (2008-2010)
• Researcher at the CNRS (Level 1) at the Centre for Himalayan Studies, Paris-Villejuif (2010-today)
5. Honors and Prizes
• Eugène Fleischmann Prize (Société d’ethnologie), University of Paris Ouest-Nanterre (2003), http://www.mae.u-paris10.fr/societe-ethnologie/bourse-presentation.php
1) My research primarily concerns anthropology of religion and anthropology of writing as far as my work is based on the study of a scriptural shamanism that has emerged in southwestern China (Yunnan Province). Four single authored books (monographs published in French (2008, 2013 & forthcoming) and in English (forthcoming)) present the anthropological results of the fieldwork I conduct since 1998. From there, three axes of analysis have been defined:
a. The first focuses on writing: shamanistic, secret, chanted, ritual and sacrificial, but also urban and political.
b. The second deals with the body: dead, ancestral, infantile, mediumnistic, shamanistic, sacrificial and spiritual (divine).
c. The third is about transmission processes: the relationship master-disciple on which I edited a collective and interdisciplinary book in 2013; I also questioned what it means to transmit knowledge and power among shamans and mediums—I organized a seminar on this topic from 2010 to 2012.
2) The acculturation processes generated by Chinese political authorities in order to transform this scriptural shamanism and to place it under their control have prompted me to question Chinese cultural politics. Hence the other side of my research: “cultures and institutions” (cultural policies) that essentially counts two axes:
a. I first carried out research about Chinese ethnopolitics and about acculturation processes developed by the central power and by the Catholic religion, the latter, established in Yunnan since 1860s, having concurrently gendered inculturation phenomenon.
b. This analysis is included in a more overall reflection about patrimonialization in contemporary China with “museumification” of Chinese minorities and the development of New Confucianism linked to the notion of “universal” introduced and redefined by Chinese through the Shanghai World Expo 2010. A monographical book, published in 2014, is devoted to this subject.
3) Lastly, I discuss contemporary anthropological theories, the link between anthropology and philosophy, and I develop comparative perspectives with other cultural areas. I provide two approaches to this subject:
a. By introducing the concept of transsubstantialism, I propose to address the notion of ritual structure by taking into account not so much the abstract relationship it supposes but what constitutes this relationship, its materiality, and thus what permits to maintain this structure. It deals at the same time with movements, dynamics and essences carried by the latter, that is to say transsubstances.
b. I develop research about museum architectures and ideologies by paying attention to the cultures in which they are conceived and introduced, and to the symbolism to which they may refer. Along with Shanghai where the Chinese government plans to build a dozen of museums over the next several years, I have developed a new exploratory fieldwork in Abu Dhabi (2014-2016) to question the creation of a “universal museum”, that is to say the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Address: La Grande Vallée, Bourgogne
• Researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) (full-time position since 2006)
habilitated to supervise research (HDR)
2. Current Research Interests
• About Anthropology:
Anthropology of religion––Anthropology of Writing––Ethno-Anthropology (Theories, methodology, Epistemology)––Ethnopolitics––Media Anthropology and Anthropology of mediation––Metaphysics––Ritualism and sacrifice rites (bloody rites)––Sino Anthropology--Writing and orality
• About China:
Chinese Religions––Mediumnism––Rites–– Shamanism and neoshamanism––Transmission––Yi people (Yi Nationality)––Voice (orality)––Chinese Writings --Zomia
• About transdisciplinary topics:
Architecture––Metaphysics––Museum (museology, museography)––Patrimonalisation––Transmission––Writing and orality––World Expos
3. Education
• University of Paris Ouest-Nanterre, France
2003. Ph. D. (summa cum laude), Ethnology, Anthropology. Dissertation director: Brigitte Baptandier (CNRS).
• School for Advance Studies in the Social Sciences (École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)), Paris, France
2017. Habilitation thesis (monographical), Ethnology, Anthropology. Supervisor: Prof. Descola (Collège de France).
4. Employment history
• Research Assistant at the University of Paris Ouest-Nanterre (1999-2004)• Researcher at the CNRS (Level 2) at the School for Advance Stdies in the Social Sciences––EHESS, Paris (2006-2008)
• Researcher at the CNRS (Level 2) at the Centre for Himalayan Studies, Paris-Villejuif (2008-2010)
• Researcher at the CNRS (Level 1) at the Centre for Himalayan Studies, Paris-Villejuif (2010-today)
5. Honors and Prizes
• Eugène Fleischmann Prize (Société d’ethnologie), University of Paris Ouest-Nanterre (2003), http://www.mae.u-paris10.fr/societe-ethnologie/bourse-presentation.php
1) My research primarily concerns anthropology of religion and anthropology of writing as far as my work is based on the study of a scriptural shamanism that has emerged in southwestern China (Yunnan Province). Four single authored books (monographs published in French (2008, 2013 & forthcoming) and in English (forthcoming)) present the anthropological results of the fieldwork I conduct since 1998. From there, three axes of analysis have been defined:
a. The first focuses on writing: shamanistic, secret, chanted, ritual and sacrificial, but also urban and political.
b. The second deals with the body: dead, ancestral, infantile, mediumnistic, shamanistic, sacrificial and spiritual (divine).
c. The third is about transmission processes: the relationship master-disciple on which I edited a collective and interdisciplinary book in 2013; I also questioned what it means to transmit knowledge and power among shamans and mediums—I organized a seminar on this topic from 2010 to 2012.
2) The acculturation processes generated by Chinese political authorities in order to transform this scriptural shamanism and to place it under their control have prompted me to question Chinese cultural politics. Hence the other side of my research: “cultures and institutions” (cultural policies) that essentially counts two axes:
a. I first carried out research about Chinese ethnopolitics and about acculturation processes developed by the central power and by the Catholic religion, the latter, established in Yunnan since 1860s, having concurrently gendered inculturation phenomenon.
b. This analysis is included in a more overall reflection about patrimonialization in contemporary China with “museumification” of Chinese minorities and the development of New Confucianism linked to the notion of “universal” introduced and redefined by Chinese through the Shanghai World Expo 2010. A monographical book, published in 2014, is devoted to this subject.
3) Lastly, I discuss contemporary anthropological theories, the link between anthropology and philosophy, and I develop comparative perspectives with other cultural areas. I provide two approaches to this subject:
a. By introducing the concept of transsubstantialism, I propose to address the notion of ritual structure by taking into account not so much the abstract relationship it supposes but what constitutes this relationship, its materiality, and thus what permits to maintain this structure. It deals at the same time with movements, dynamics and essences carried by the latter, that is to say transsubstances.
b. I develop research about museum architectures and ideologies by paying attention to the cultures in which they are conceived and introduced, and to the symbolism to which they may refer. Along with Shanghai where the Chinese government plans to build a dozen of museums over the next several years, I have developed a new exploratory fieldwork in Abu Dhabi (2014-2016) to question the creation of a “universal museum”, that is to say the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Address: La Grande Vallée, Bourgogne
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diverse rituals they may perform. References to birth or childhood are usually an integral part of their ritual texts so that childhood does not constitute a central theme by itself. It forms the main topic of only one text I collected in the field, the one on which this essay focuses, extracted from a book reserved for funerals—for men, in particular.
diverse rituals they may perform. References to birth or childhood are usually an integral part of their ritual texts so that childhood does not constitute a central theme by itself. It forms the main topic of only one text I collected in the field, the one on which this essay focuses, extracted from a book reserved for funerals—for men, in particular.
Through ethnographic data, the author presents the still little known bimo metaphysics and unravels the complexity of the local text-based ritual system in which the continuity of each bimo lineage relies on the transmission of manuscripts whose writing relates to lineage blood. While illuminating the usages of this shamanistic tradition that is characterized by scriptural variability between patrilineages, Aurélie Névot highlights the radical changes it is undergoing by becoming a Chinese state tradition.
C’est en multipliant les angles et en diversifiant les domaines où cette relation s’exerce que pareil phénomène peut être approché. Tel est le propos de cet ouvrage rassemblant philosophes, historiens et ethnologues. De l’Académie d’Athènes à l’enseignement dans les institutions scolaires et universitaires en Europe contemporaine, de filiations spirituelles et musicales hindoues à des pratiques chamaniques de Chine, les auteurs s’interrogent sur les acteurs de la transmission – orale ou livresque, parlée ou muette, gestuelle ou musiquante –, et l’intimité de ces « passeurs de question ». Confucius dit transmettre mais ne pas innover, tout en considérant que de l’ancien émane la nouveauté ; Fichte fait du rapport maître-disciple la condition de l’éclosion du savoir. Autant de situations dans des civilisations et des temps différents qui déploient toutes les facettes de cette rencontre interpersonnelle. Autant d’occasions de mettre en lumière la continuité, la perdurance de l’objet à transmettre.
Une réflexion stimulante sur un phénomène social mal connu : la transmission du savoir.
Due to this lack of logic in its own historical and cultural continuity, due to the total breakdown of its social structures that offended its national identity, Chinese society now regards its localities, objects, monuments, ancient artefacts and concepts as reflexive items that mirror its history and culture. It uses them to ensure the permanence of its symbolic order. It would seem important today to consider them afresh in order to bestow meaning on the historical and cultural continuity of the country that has been deeply affected since the nineteenth century by the arrival of Western settlers on the eastern side of the Empire (in Shanghai in particular). The Confucian State was conceived to ensure the Empire’s prosperity, stability and security after it had been weakened at that period in time.
It is not so much the conservation of Chinese cultural heritage that prevails as its enhancement and its harmonization with government ideology, a process which goes hand in hand with its transformation. China reinvents, redeems, rebuilds by grafting significations on the relevant items in line with State Orthodoxy. Through this patrimonial undertaking, time gaps are “filled in” and a new order is affirmed. This book sets out to analyse this semantic shift from an ancient set of symbols to a set of symbols that are re-examined using the present as a yardstick. The building commonly known as “The Crown of the East” is representative of the “re-interpretative” ideology associating modernity and antiquity and more to the point, it encrypts the neo-Confucian vision of the contemporary world.
This crown was built for the World Fair which took place in Shanghai from 1st May to 31st October 2010. It was then officially named “the Pavilion of the Chinese Nation”. Built to last, it opened its doors on several occasions in 2011, after this grand “high mass”, until its final transformation in 2012 into the “China Art Palace”. Inaugurated on the day of the 63rd birthday of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, 1st October 2012, this “Palace” now hosts part of the collection of contemporary art previously housed in the Shanghai Art Museum, and recounts the history and the evolution of modern art in China.
In keeping with the 2010 World Expo slogan: “better city, better life”, each exhibiting country had to imagine the city of the future, deeply anchored in an ecological challenge of nature conservation and energy-giving auto-sufficiency. Although this challenge is not original, the link established between Man and his environment, as well as Man’s perception of his environment, needs to be questioned. Even though ecology now seems to be a universal preoccupation, it is not so for the perception of Nature.
During “Shanghai 2010”, China revealed how it perceives the “universal” and the link between humankind and the world by presenting its ancestral concepts for the whole world to see. Far from betraying its own culture in this international context, it has on the contrary given Shanghai special status: a haven where the centre of the new world, an expression that has to be understood here in the Chinese sense of the term which refers to its symbolism, to its cosmo-ontology, can be safeguarded through the Crown of the East. Indeed, symbolically, the “city on the sea” has been raised to the rank of “universal capital” thanks to the Chinese Pavilion.
In The Crown of the East (2014), the fundamental characteristics of the Crown of the East are analyzed: firstly, facing southwards and associated with the sky, the construction is supported by four pillars standing on a building located under the Chinese Pavilion: the Chinese Provinces Pavilion which is symbolically associated with the Earth. Secondly, its structure is made up of 56 corbels—each symbolizing a Chinese nationality—whose forces mutually balance and ensure the stability of the whole monument. Furthermore, the platform situated at the top of the building recalls the ancient Bright Hall through which the emperor had to travel to set the universe in order—what is more, the building makes reference to the unification of China by the first emperor with its seal scripts. Moving in time to the cycles of the cosmos—the 24 solar periods—, it also indicates the four cardinal points. Moreover, it is adorned with “Chinese Red”, a “unified-compound” created especially for the Crown which diffuses, in a subliminal manner, the ideology of New Confucianism. Besides, the Crown of the East overlooks the garden named “Purity and Calm on the new nine continents”—invoking mythical territories and the Chinese ecosystems. An exhibition ran from 2010 to 2011 inside the Crown. The theme was “Oriental prints” which evoked the industrial and economic growth of Chinese society, as well as its future ideological orientations. This exhibition showed the basis of Chinese utopia by presenting a revisited memory which questions head-on the evocation of history in China and the strategy of handing down a political message. The Crown of the East is said to “incarnate” (tixian 体现) a “project” (sheji 设计) which is the pinnacle of Chinese perceptions.
A few reasons have motivated this work of translation and annotation: firstly, these texts give access to the Sanis’ representations of the world—cosmogony, mythology, spirits’ pantheon, etc.—as well as to their political organization and to their kinship system. Secondly, midje is one of the most complicated ritual of the shamanistic corpus. Lastly, the Sanis give a crucial role to this harvest festival, once winter is coming and seeds are well preserved at home.
The aim of this book is to make those ritual texts better known because they refer to a particular shamanistic culture embedded in a geographic area at the intersection of different cultural areas, notably Chinese and Himalayan. Thus, it is a new outlook on religions of this multiethnic space that this study promotes, opening on representations that cover a few anthropological fields: shamanism, relationship between writing and orality, ritual and poetic chant, corporeity, but also politics, kinship, alliance, bloody sacrifice, cosmogony, transmission, eschatology, to mention but a few. The introduction develops these topics and puts in light transsubstantional and consubstantional processes during the transmission of cultual books and the bloody sacrifice that it accompanies (cf. infra), while deepening knowledge about the bimos’ shamanistic writing that has “to be seen” and “to be heard”.