Many historians agree that categories of human division underwent a drastic change due to European New World encounters. The shift from religious divisions to ones based on ethnicity and skin color gradually developed in early modern Europe. Hence, before natives became "red," and Europeans "white" a period existed where the differences between these cultures were utilized in a variety of means to prove similarity and difference. One element signifying difference during the early contact period was that of the beard. Hair as an identifier has a long history: through the middle ages, wildness was conveyed by hair and at times non-Christians were legally required to grow beards. Early in the sixteenth century the beard became a popular fad for white, Christian-European men, a change which some scholars have traced to European contact with beardless Amerindians. Within Europe, the beard came to represent more than otherness. A thick beard conveyed images of health, particularly sexual health; the beard came to represent virility and the beard helped to separate men from women and boys. In this paper I argue that the beard assumed a special significance within early English contacts in the Carolinas and Virginia. I examine the changing meanings of the beard and the English adoption of these meanings. I first examine the European background which helped provide the context for their first permanent colonial settlements in the New World. I next delve into travel accounts, ethnographies and artistic portrayals of the Natives in these colonies to examine how and when both sides evoked facial hair as a signifier of difference. This examination will help reveal English views of Natives during a time when their views regarding the Natives' character could affect the success of English colonial ventures. Finally, I examine why the beard failed as a sign of difference between the region's Amerindians and the English. This failure led to the adoption of other means of distinction specifically that of skin color. Hence the beard served as a first stepping stone towards what would become a fully conceptualized racial theory.

Dans une perspective développementale et en prolongement des travaux sur la psychogénèse de l’écrit, la recherche présentée dans cette thèse étudie la rencontre précoce entre le jeune enfant et le livre, médiatisée par la lecture à voix haute adressée par l’adulte lecteur. Les pratiques familiales autour du livre jeunesse ont été évaluées à partir de questionnaires remplis par les parents pour 165 enfants. Les interactions ont été observées pour 67 dyadesenfant(s)/parent(s) lors de trois rencontres. 75 enfants ont suivi des ateliers mensuels de lecture avec variation du mode d’interaction de l’adulte lecteur, neutre ou participatif. Les résultats obtenus situent l’avènement moyen de l’usage canonique du livre aux 17 mois de l’enfant. Le stade de construction canonique du livre fait varier le statut du livre pour l’enfant, passant d’un objet à manipuler à un objet support de lecture partagée. Pour le parent, le stade canonique de son enfant n’a pas d’influence sur le statut qu’il reconnaît au livre, qui fait l’objet, pour une majorité de parents, d’une distinction franche d’avec le jeu. L’enfant adapte son mode de communication et fait varier son niveau d’engagement dans l’activité selon le type de participation, neutre ou participatif, induit par l’adulte. Nos observations et analyses ont permis de dégager trois profils d’enfants et de parents dans la rencontre précoce avec l’objet livre selon leur mode de communication, le statut reconnu au livre, les pratiques familiales et l’engagement dans l’activité. La rencontre précoce entre l’enfant et le livre, portée par l’adulte, apparaît comme une étape nécessaire dans les débuts de la psychogénèse de l’écrit. / Through a developmental perspective and in the wake of previous works about the psychogenesis of writing, the research presented in this doctoral dissertation studies the early encounters between the child and the book, mediated by the reading aloud of the adult. The family practices regarding children’s books have been assessed from questionnaires filled out by parents for 165 children. The interactions have been observed for 67 child(ren)/parent(s) dyads on three separate occasions. 75 children have attended monthly reading workshops involving different modes of interaction with the adult reader, from neutral to participatory. The results thus obtained set the average advent of canonical book use around the child’s seventeenth month. The book’s canonical construction phase alters the book status in the eyes of the child, from an object to manipulate to one of support for shared reading. For the parents, the child’s canonical phase has no influence on the status they grant the book, as the majority of parents distinguish clearly reading from playing. The child adapts its mode of communication and its involvement in the activity based on the adult’s degree of participation, from neutral to participatory. Our observations and analyses during the early encounters with the book object have outlined three profiles of children and parents, based on their mode of communication, the status granted to the book, family practices and the involvement in the activity. Carried by the adult, the early encounters between the child and the book appear as necessary steps toward the psychogenesis of writing.