Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In Australian Aboriginal affairs, the acculturative strand of assimilation developed in large part from Elkin’s religious and Idealist commitment, for which in the years 1928 to 1933 he won social-scientific authority. In competition with both an eliminationist politics of race and a segregationist politics of territory, Elkin drew upon religious experience, apologetics, sociology, and networks to establish a ‘positive policy’ as an enduring ideal in Aboriginal affairs. His leadership of the 1930s reform movement began within the Anglican Church, became national through civic-religious organs of publicity, and gained scientific authority as Elkin made religious themes a central concern in Australian anthropology. But from the 1960s until recently, most scholars have lost sight of the centrality of Idealism and religion in our protagonist’s seminal project of acculturative assimilation. This thesis aims to show how Elkin dealt with problems fundamental to twentieth century Aboriginal affairs and indeed to Australian modernity more generally – problems of faith and science, morality and expediency – in developing his positive policy towards Aborigines.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In Australian Aboriginal affairs, the acculturative strand of assimilation developed in large part from Elkin’s religious and Idealist commitment, for which in the years 1928 to 1933 he won social-scientific authority. In competition with both an eliminationist politics of race and a segregationist politics of territory, Elkin drew upon religious experience, apologetics, sociology, and networks to establish a ‘positive policy’ as an enduring ideal in Aboriginal affairs. His leadership of the 1930s reform movement began within the Anglican Church, became national through civic-religious organs of publicity, and gained scientific authority as Elkin made religious themes a central concern in Australian anthropology. But from the 1960s until recently, most scholars have lost sight of the centrality of Idealism and religion in our protagonist’s seminal project of acculturative assimilation. This thesis aims to show how Elkin dealt with problems fundamental to twentieth century Aboriginal affairs and indeed to Australian modernity more generally – problems of faith and science, morality and expediency – in developing his positive policy towards Aborigines.

L’Europe est progressivement devenue, pour les Américains, un contre-modèle. Les divergences entre les États-Unis et l’Europe résultent d’une césure politique et culturelle, masquée depuis le début de la Guerre froide (et même depuis la Première Guerre mondiale) par les impératifs de la bipolarité.L’étude des fondements anthropologiques de l’Occident, met en évidence l’unité théologique, juridique et logique de l’Europe et l’Amérique de l’Antiquité aux Lumières. La civilisation occidentale se situe à l’intersection de l’orbite institutionnelle de la civilisation du droit civil romano-canonique et de celle du christianisme.Ces divergences entre l’Europe et les États-Unis se dessinèrent en fait dès les origines de la modernité politique. Sur tous les points essentiels de la philosophie politique – liens entre religion et pensée éclairée, laïcité et sécularisation, conceptions de la liberté et de l’égalité, rapport dialectique entre république et démocratie, fondements du prométhéisme politique et social, conception de l’universalisme –, tout oppose l’Amérique et l’Europe.Pour ce qui relève de la post-modernité, nous montrons comment la philosophie libérale a recyclé les idées faussement révolutionnaires pour conduire l’Europe à une crise multiforme, un nihilisme qui se dissimule sous le masque avenant de la marchandisation généralisée et de l’esprit libertaire. À la différence de l’Europe postmoderne, l’Amérique a partiellement réussi à se mettre à l’abri de ces dynamiques de désintégration. La « nation indispensable » a su entretenir le style national américain dont l’attachement sans faille à la nation et la religiosité sont les principales caractéristiques. / Europe gradually became, in the eyes of the Americans, a counter-model. The discrepancies between the United States and Europe result from a political and cultural caesura which was hidden from the beginning of the Cold war by the imperatives of bipolarity.The study of the anthropological foundations of the West highlights the theological, legal and logical unity of Europe and America from the Antiquity to the Enlightenment. The birth of the Western civilisation takes place at the intersection of the orbit of the romano-canonical civil law and that of Christianity.These discrepancies between Europe and the United States actually took shape from the origins of the political modernity. All the essential points of political philosophy – the links between religion and enlightened thinking, secularism, the conceptions of freedom and equality, the relationship between republic and democracy, the foundations of the political and social Prometheism – are areas of divergence.Concerning the post-modernity, we will then show how the liberal philosophy recycled pseudo-revolutionary ideas which led Europe to a manifold crisis, a type of nihilism, hidden by the disguise of the generalized commodification and the libertarian ideology. Unlike postmodern Europe, America partially managed to escape from these dynamics of disintegration. The “indispensable nation” managed to preserve the American national style the main characteristics of which are patriotism and religiosity.

Antonin Proust (1832-1905), homme politique, ami des artistes, historien, critique et salonnier, joua un rôle politique et culturel important. La vie de ce républicain libéral est un plaidoyer pour la défense des arts au service de la République. Il lie étroitement structure économique et institutions artistiques soutenant sans cesse les arts utiles. Son but est économique : former des artistes au service de l’industrie. Il crée des écoles d’art et favorise l’introduction du dessin dans les programmes scolaires. Rapporteur du budget, il soutient la protection et le développement des arts. La réunification des arts qu’il prône aboutit à la création du ministère des Arts. Protecteur des arts, il participe à la fondation des musées de sculpture comparée et des arts décoratifs et crée l’école du Louvre pour former des conservateurs. Achetant pour l’État les œuvres de Millet, Courbet et Manet, il promeut des artistes insoumis à l’Académie et s’affirme comme le promoteur d’œuvres polémiques. Organisant des expositions à la gloire de Courbet ou Manet, il prône l’audace, l’individualité, la liberté, le naturalisme. Véritable propagande artistique, industrielle et politique, l’Exposition universelle de 1889 qu’il organise concrétise ses ambitions, il y rassemble beaux-arts et arts industriels. L’art nouveau y prend racine et rayonnera en 1900. Ses succès n’ont pas permis à Proust d’entrer dans l’histoire, mais son action a porté ses fruits dans la pérennité des structures dont il a défendu la création ou dans l’explosion des arts décoratifs et du marché de l’art. / Antonin Proust (1832-1905), political figure, friend of the artists, historian, critic and salonnier, played an important political and cultural part. The life of this liberal republican is a plea for the protection of arts in the service of the Republic. He connects economic structure with artistic institutions and constantly advocates the useful arts. His aim is economic: to train artists in the service of the industry. He creates art schools and encourages the introduction of design at school. As budget rapporteur, he supports the protection and the development of arts. The unification of the arts which he advocates results in the creation of the ministry of the Arts. Advocate of the heritage, he takes part in the foundations of the Musée de sculpture comparée, of the musée des Arts décoratifs, and founds the École du Louvre to train curators. Buying for the State the works of Millet, Courbet and Manet, he promotes rebellious artists, unruly to the Academy of fine arts, and emerges as a partisan of controversial works. Organizing exhibitions to the glory of Courbet or Manet, he advocates boldness, individuality, freedom and naturalisme. Real artistic, industrial and political propaganda, the World Fair of 1889 which he organizes concretizes his ambitions. He gathers fine arts and useful arts. The Art Nouveau takes root there to blow up in 1900. His successes did not allow Proust to enter the history, but his action bore fruits in the sustainability of the structures he defended the foundation of or in the boom of craft arts and of the art market.