Version
française
Julien
Bonhomme
Alumnus
of the École normale supérieure (1995), agrégé in philosophy (1998), I
received a PhD in anthropology from the École des Hautes Études en
Sciences Sociales in 2003 and a
Habilitation degree from Paris-Descartes University in
2020.
I
have been assistant professor in anthropology
at the University of Lyon-2 (between
2006 and 2008), deputy
director of the research and teaching department of the quai
Branly museum in Paris (bewteen 2008 and 2012), and
assistant
professor at the
École normale supérieure (between 2012 and 2022).
I am currently directeur d'études
at the École
des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales,
researcher at the
Laboratoire
d'anthropologie sociale and co-director
of the Laboratoire since 2020.
I study the powers of speech in society from an ethnographic approach
focusing on verbal exchanges and, more broadly, communicative events. The
analysis of verbal interactions and their embedding in broader
sociohistorical contexts aims to shed light on how social relations are
produced and reproduced through these exchanges. My research focuses on
religious speech as well as on writing practices, the transnational
circulation of rumors, the production and reception of news, or digital
communication. By varying the scales of analysis and combining
ethnographic and historical methods, my work links the detailed study of
contexts of communication to that of wider sociohistorical dynamics:
colonization, urban modernity, the globalization of media and
communication technologies. Based on fieldwork in Gabon and Senegal, as
well as archival work on colonial Africa, my research combines four
related topics:
1. Ritual. Words, artifacts and images.
The first topic deals with ritual speech, most notably in religious
contexts. By looking at different kinds of speech (divination, oaths,
curses, magical incantations, panegyric, etc.) and ritual specialists
(diviner, prophet, marabout, griot, etc.), I examine how the claim to
exercise power through speech or to speak the truth is socially
constructed and legitimated. I also study the articulation of speech with
other expressive mediums, such as music, dance, images and artefacts. By
focusing on images and objects, I have been led to examine the ways in
which the figure of the European has been integrated into the symbolic
world of local populations since the 19th century. This work is part of a
wider reflection on the colonial situation in order to understand how it
was conceived and experienced by colonized subjects.
2. Prophetic movements. Religion,
writing and power. Based on a research in administrative and
missionary archives, the second topic focuses on the use of writing in
African prophetic movements. Manifesting the charismatic authority of the
prophet, these writings are inspired by both the religions of the Book and
the bureaucratic model of the official document. They refer to an ideology
of writing, whose origin is rooted in the colonial situation: as an
instrument of power as much as of knowledge, writing is closely associated
with the two pillars of the colonial order, the State and the Mission. It
is because Europeans have extensively used writing to establish their
domination that the colonized subjects have appropriated these signs of
power in order to oppose them. Taking up again the Weberian analyses on
charisma and bureaucracy, I examine how the written word participates in
the construction of authority at the crossroads of political and religious
spheres.
3. Witchcraft. From family gossip to
transnational rumors. The third topic deals with witchcraft and
the social dynamics of accusations. I study the circulation of witchcraft
gossip by showing that it is an indirect communication strategy that
allows to avoid frontal conflict in a group of inter-acquaintances such as
the family or the neighborhood. In addition, I study a series of occult
rumors that have circulated on a wider scale, sometimes across the entire
African continent. I analyze how these rumors are spread by word of mouth,
but also through the media and the internet. I examine how they lead to
public accusations, violence and lynching. Far from being trivial news,
these rumors are exemplary cases that can help us to shed light on African
societies from an original perspective. As an extension of this work on
the production, circulation and reception of rumors, I am also interested
in fake news, conspiracy theories and online scams.
4. Senegalese wrestling. Building fame.
The last topic deals with Senegalese wrestling, a true national passion in
the country. I trace back the history of the transformation of village
wrestling tournaments into a sport-cum-spectacle during the colonial era.
My ethnographic fieldwork follows the entire chain of actors and
institutions involved in wrestling: the wrestlers and the écuries
(“stables”) where they train in the popular neighborhoods of Dakar and its
suburbs; the official committee charged by the State with supervising and
regulating the practice of wrestling; the promoters, firms and politicians
who organize, fund or sponsor the fights; the media who ensure their
publicity; the griots who sing the praises of the champions; and the
marabouts who take care of their “mystical preparation”. In particular, I
study the collective mobilization around the wrestlers and the hopes of
success that they embody. No wrestler can succeed without the support of
his family, his neighborhood and his village of origin. In order to do so,
he must perform a reputational work to cultivate his reputation. By
placing “popularity”, the cardinal value of wrestling, at the center of my
study, I propose a broader reflection on the social dynamics of fame and
celebrity beyond the field of sports.
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