À partir d’un travail d’enquête anthropologique mené à un niveau microsocial, cette thèse étudie la vie politique de l’île d’Ouvéa (Nouvelle-Calédonie) que l’on peut comparer à un chantier permanent. S’appuyant sur quatre études de cas relatant des crises, des polémiques ou des controverses, ce travail conduit une réflexion générale sur la conception de la vie politique locale et sur les rapports d’influence et de pouvoir qu’elle peut générer. L’analyse s’articule autour de trois focales. L’affaire de la grotte d’Ouvéa, qui constitue la première, montre en quoi les événements historiques et leurs enjeux mémoriels sont des fondements de la vie politique contemporaine. La seconde focale traite de la « coutume » comme discours normé, système de relations et ordre politique. Son analyse met en exergue le fait que la « coutume » n’organise pas autant la vie quotidienne de manière traditionnelle qu’elle est régulièrement mobilisée pour servir des ambitions personnelles. La troisième focale s’intéresse à l’articulation de la « coutume » et de l’institution républicaine locale de la commune à l’époque de la « loi sur la parité ». La description du conseil municipal permet ainsi de nourrir une réflexion sur les rapports sociaux de sexe en pays kanak. L’objectif de ce travail est de démontrer que la vie politique d’Ouvéa constitue un « (mi)lieu » paradoxal caractérisé par des activités de construction, de démolition et de réparation. Constituant un milieu à la fois agité et figé, contrôlé et désordonné, tourné vers le passé et ouvert à l’avenir, la vie politique d’Ouvéa, tout comme les éléments qui la composent, est un objet à la fois mouvant et dynamique. / Based on a microsocial ethnography, this thesis focuses on the political life of Ouvéa Island (New Caledonia) which can be considered as a constant ongoing building process.Using four case studies describing crisis, polemics or controversies, this thesis offers more general thoughts on the organization on how this political life is locally conceived and on the relationships of influence and of power it can generates.The analysis evolves around three major problematics. The « affaire de la grotte d’Ouvéa », which is the first one, demonstrates how historical events and their memory stakes are the foundation of the contemporary political life. The second one, questions « custom » as a standardized discourse, a relationship system and a political order. Its analyses shows that « custom » is not only organizing the daily life on a traditional way, but that it can also be used in order to serve more personal ambitions. The third problematic explores how both « custom » and « republican institutions » do articulate with eachother at the time of the implementation of the « french parity law ». The description of the « conseil municipal » (local Council) therefore provides us with general thoughts on gender relationships in Kanak society. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that the political life of Ouvéa is a paradoxal environment characterised by building as well as demolition and fixing activities. Being at the same time an agitated and motionless place, considering its past when looking forward to the future at the same time, the political life of Ouvéa, just like the elements which compose it, is both a changing and a dynamic object.

Esta pesquisa se interroga sobre articulações entre características próprias a tradições orais e experiências de registro de enunciados orais indígenas a partir de dois casos, de escalas distintas: Xavante, habitando a aldeia de Pimentel Barbosa no Brasil Central, e Kanak, habitando as ilhas da Nova Caledônia na Melanésia. Internamente a cada caso, propus o estabelecimento de relações ou rizomas de modo a identificar efeitos que experiências e produtos de registro de enunciados orais produziram junto a seus atores, efeitos este que qualifico como de proliferação, rechaço, ou descaso. Ao pautar minha análise nos modos de interação mediados através do discurso segundo modalidades consideradas adequadas por aquelas populações em contextos específicos, busquei refletir acerca dos modos como vêm assumir sua tradição enunciada em situações de oficialização e institucionalização de patrimônios e identidades, assim como identificar modos com registros são empregados por tais populações segundo formas de criatividade próprias e inovadoras. Meu objetivo foi uma reflexão crítica, a partir de dois casos tornados aqui comparáveis, concernindo as atuais políticas do patrimônio imaterial pautadas em ações de valorização e salvaguarda de tradições orais de populações indígenas. / This study focus on the relationships between oral traditions, and products and events related to the documentation of indigenous oral sayings from the starting point of two case-studies of different scales: Xavante, from the Pimentel Barbosa village in Central Brazil, and Kanak, from the islands of New Caledonia, in Melanesia. For each of this cases I intended the search for relations or rhizomes, in order to identify effects that documentation of oral statements, narratives and sayings produced in the point of view of their very actors. I call such effects proliferation, resistance or indifference. Basing my analysis in expressive and discourse-mediated interaction as considered adequate by these populations in specific contexts, I wished to reflect on traditions as announced, in situations that demand the institutionalization of patrimonies and identities, as well as identify ways that documentation practices and products are invested by these people according to their own dynamic forms of creativity and innovation. My objective was to establish, through making these two cases comparables, a critical reflection on the contemporary intangible cultural heritage policies based on the safeguarding of oral traditions and expressions of indigenous people.

Si le choc de la colonisation de la Nouvelle-Calédonie évoqué dans le préambule de l’accord sur la Nouvelle-Calédonie du 5 mai 1998 n’est plus à démontrer, les moyens développés par le droit français à l’endroit du peuple restent à être examinés. Compte tenu des relations particulières qu’entretiennent les Kanak à la terre, le choc des cultures va se traduire par l’opposition des droits entre une coutume immuable, et un droit français qui sacralise la propriété privée, participant aux droits de l’homme et du citoyen Ces particularismes propres à la colonisation de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, ont pris de multiples formes juridiques, pour ce qui est de la prise de possession elle-même puisque le peuple premier kanak va connaitre un traité (1844), une prise de possession en 1853, et des actes de reconnaissance de souveraineté paraphés par certains chefs (1854) sur la Grande Terre.1Notre questionnement permanent est donc celui de savoir comment le peuple kanak a subi en vertu du droit français un bouleversement fondamental de son espace foncier vital, des zones d’influences de ses chefferies traditionnelles, une déstructuration de son organisation dotée de ses propres codes. La reconnaissance constitutionnelle d’un statut personnel propre au peuple premier dans l’accord de Nouméa de 1998, va permettre de confirmer et d’assurer la prééminence des usages coutumiers, non plus dans ce seul domaine, mais pour tout ce qui concerne le droit civil. Le droit français réputé fondé sur l’égalité. L’application au peuple kanak de Nouvelle-Calédonie montre que cette idée doit être réexaminée. Aussi, qu’il s’agisse de la période de la colonisation (1ere partie) et son droit discriminatoire négatif où celle de la décolonisation (2eme partie) et son droit discriminatoire positif, le peuple kanak a connu et connaît toujours des règles différentes / If the shock of the colonization of New Caledonia evoked in the introduction of the agreement on New Caledonia of May 5th, 1998 is not to be any more demonstrated, themeans developed by the French law towards the people remain to be examined. Considering the particular relations that maintain Kanak in the land, the shock of the cultures is goi ng to be translated by the opposition of the rights be tween an unchanging custom, and a French law which makes sacred the private property, participat ing in the rights of man and the citizen. These senses of identity appropriate for the coloni zation of New Caledonia, took multiple legal forms, as for the very taking possession because the Kanak first people knows a treaty (1844), a taking possession in 1853, and acts of gratitude of sovere ignty were signed by leaders (1854 ) on the Big Earth 2 . Our permanent questioning is thus the one to know how the Kanak people underwent by virtue of the French law a fundamental upheaval of his vital land space, spheres of influence ofhis traditional chieftainships, a disintegration of his organizatio n endowed with his owncodes. The constitutional gratitude of a personal status a ppropriate for the first people in the agreement of Noumea of 1998, is going to allow to confirm and to assure the superiority of the usual uses, either i n this only domain, but for all which concerns the ci vil law. The renowned French law based on the equality. The application to the Kanak people of New Caledonia shows that this idea must be revised. So, it is about the period of the colonization ( 1st part)) and its negative discriminatory law wher e that of the decolonization (2eme left) and its posi tive discriminatory law, Kanak people knew and always knows different rules.

Esta pesquisa se interroga sobre articulações entre características próprias a tradições orais e experiências de registro de enunciados orais indígenas a partir de dois casos, de escalas distintas: Xavante, habitando a aldeia de Pimentel Barbosa no Brasil Central, e Kanak, habitando as ilhas da Nova Caledônia na Melanésia. Internamente a cada caso, propus o estabelecimento de relações ou rizomas de modo a identificar efeitos que experiências e produtos de registro de enunciados orais produziram junto a seus atores, efeitos este que qualifico como de proliferação, rechaço, ou descaso. Ao pautar minha análise nos modos de interação mediados através do discurso segundo modalidades consideradas adequadas por aquelas populações em contextos específicos, busquei refletir acerca dos modos como vêm assumir sua tradição enunciada em situações de oficialização e institucionalização de patrimônios e identidades, assim como identificar modos com registros são empregados por tais populações segundo formas de criatividade próprias e inovadoras. Meu objetivo foi uma reflexão crítica, a partir de dois casos tornados aqui comparáveis, concernindo as atuais políticas do patrimônio imaterial pautadas em ações de valorização e salvaguarda de tradições orais de populações indígenas. / This study focus on the relationships between oral traditions, and products and events related to the documentation of indigenous oral sayings from the starting point of two case-studies of different scales: Xavante, from the Pimentel Barbosa village in Central Brazil, and Kanak, from the islands of New Caledonia, in Melanesia. For each of this cases I intended the search for relations or rhizomes, in order to identify effects that documentation of oral statements, narratives and sayings produced in the point of view of their very actors. I call such effects proliferation, resistance or indifference. Basing my analysis in expressive and discourse-mediated interaction as considered adequate by these populations in specific contexts, I wished to reflect on traditions as announced, in situations that demand the institutionalization of patrimonies and identities, as well as identify ways that documentation practices and products are invested by these people according to their own dynamic forms of creativity and innovation. My objective was to establish, through making these two cases comparables, a critical reflection on the contemporary intangible cultural heritage policies based on the safeguarding of oral traditions and expressions of indigenous people.

Depuis l’Accord de Nouméa de 1998 et la reconnaissance de l’identité kanake, le registre international des droits des peuples autochtones est apparu en Nouvelle-Calédonie. Si depuis l’Accord de Matignon de 1989, la réflexion de la doctrine se concentre sur la souveraineté de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, la question autochtone est désormais un nouvel aspect de la décolonisation kanake. Elle n’est pas directement revendiquée pour l’indépendance, mais pour obtenir des droits de peuple autochtone. Ce point de vue s’émancipe de la doctrine moniste classique de l’État nation, en considérant que d’autres entités puissent prétendre à l’autodétermination par la reconnaissance d’un système juridique propre. Une relecture de la Constitution de 1958 ainsi que l’analyse des pratiques administratives et juridictionnelles démontrent la capacité du droit français à prendre en considération les aspirations et les particularités de la société kanake. Au delà de l’Accord de Nouméa, une réflexion doctrinale alternative est donc proposée à partir du comparatisme avec le droit canadien. / Since the 1998 Noumea Accord and the recognition of the Kanak identity, the International Register of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has appeared in New Caledonia. Since the Matignon Agreement of 1989, the doctrine has focused on the sovereignty of New Caledonia, the indigenous issue is now a new aspect of Kanak decolonization. It is not directly claimed for independence, but for the rights of indigenous peoples. This point of view emancipates itself from the classical monist doctrine of the nation state, considering that other entities can claim self-determination by recognizing a proper legal system. A review of the 1958 Constitution and the analysis of administrative and judicial practices demonstrate the ability of French law to take into account the aspirations and particularities of the Kanake society. Beyond the Noumea Accord, an alternative reflection is proposed based on comparatism with Canadian law.

This thesis takes an actor-oriented approach to a micropolitical analysis of the engagements of Kanak villagers in the Voh-Koné area, New Caledonia, with the Koniambo Project, a proposed joint nickel mining venture involving a multinational (Falconbridge) and a local mining company (SMSP). In the introductory chapter, I outline my theoretical framework, which expands political ecology by applying insights from micropolitical theory to a focus on intracommunity disputes surrounding natural resource exploitation projects. I argue that such a close examination is necessary if we are to understand local tensions and factions and their multiple influences on the outcomes of development projects. ¶ The Koniambo Project promises to redress some of the economic imbalances prevalent in the archipelago by benefiting the largely Kanak, and historically underprivileged, Northern Province. Thus, this mining project has great politico-economic significance, both for pro-independence leaders as well as for those who wish to maintain New Caledonia as a part of France. However, while people expected benefits for the Kanak people as a whole, the project sparked intracommunity conflicts at the local level. I argue that villagers’ claims to the right to authorize mining activities as well as their desires to receive recognition from the mining company reflected their eagerness to prove a high social position. Meanwhile, in line with the traditionally competitive political climate within Kanak communities, there were many debates about who exactly the ‘landowners’ were. Indeed, the project’s potential to disrupt or reinforce control over land – which, unlike material goods, was a socially acceptable object of overt rivalry – created unexpected socio-political stakes. These differential micropolitical possibilities shaped people’s discourses about the project’s other impacts. For instance, those who expected to be able to access employment opportunities as well as social recognition from the mining project were more inclined not to worry about the project’s consequences for natural/cultural resources. Similarly, Voh-Koné area villagers’ statements and actions regarding dangers from spirits or forbidden places were strongly influenced by their expectations of the project’s ability to strengthen or weaken their social status, as determined by their genealogies and proven through demonstrations of their relationships to their ancestors. ¶ In the final chapter, I provide a summary of my conclusions about the micropolitics behind local community members’ engagements with the Koniambo Project. Next I explain how, while this case itself is unique due to the project’s unusual politico-economic significance, the theoretical framework and methodology outlined in this thesis can help to create balanced, nuanced analyses of intracommunity diversity and micropolitical conflicts that objectively yet sympathetically portray local people as real human beings. Finally, I suggest new directions for further research on the interactions of mining companies and local communities.

Depuis l’Accord de Nouméa de 1998 et la reconnaissance de l’identité kanake, le registre international des droits des peuples autochtones est apparu en Nouvelle-Calédonie. Si depuis l’Accord de Matignon de 1989, la réflexion de la doctrine se concentre sur la souveraineté de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, la question autochtone est désormais un nouvel aspect de la décolonisation kanake. Elle n’est pas directement revendiquée pour l’indépendance, mais pour obtenir des droits de peuple autochtone. Ce point de vue s’émancipe de la doctrine moniste classique de l’État nation, en considérant que d’autres entités puissent prétendre à l’autodétermination par la reconnaissance d’un système juridique propre. Une relecture de la Constitution de 1958 ainsi que l’analyse des pratiques administratives et juridictionnelles démontrent la capacité du droit français à prendre en considération les aspirations et les particularités de la société kanake. Au delà de l’Accord de Nouméa, une réflexion doctrinale alternative est donc proposée à partir du comparatisme avec le droit canadien.

No description available.

Quel droit de l’environnement pour quelle société ? Avec une méthode qui conjoint un examen socio-anthropologique et un examen juridique, cette thèse pose la question pour la Nouvelle-Calédonie, par une analyse du passé récent, des difficultés contemporaines et d’une refondation rendue possible par une évolution de la pensée juridique et au moyen d’outils élaborés récemment ailleurs et qui ont permis par exemple de reconnaître la personnalité juridique à des éléments de la nature.Reconnue comme hotspot mondial de la biodiversité, avec la menace environnementale que constitue l’exploitation des immenses ressources minières de nickel, comment la Nouvelle-Calédonie, près de 150 ans après son annexion par la France et son engagement depuis une trentaine d’années sur le chemin de la décolonisation, s’y prend-elle pour protéger son environnement naturel ? La réponse que nous obtenons par l’étude du droit positif, des institutions, du droit comparé, des discours et du travail de terrain, est claire : le droit applicable aujourd’hui en Nouvelle-Calédonie est issu d’une rationalisation exogène des relations sociales. Il est de fait inadapté au contexte culturel du Pacifique. Les relations Homme Nature, équilibrées, ont été « désenchantées » par la christianisation, la colonisation et la rationalisation scientifique. Comme dans beaucoup d’endroits, en Nouvelle-Calédonie, le sacré qui caractérisait ces relations a été écarté au profit de ce que nous avons choisi d’appeler le « complexe de Noé » et qui est devenu le fondement de toute politique environnementale. Notre diagnostic sur les limites du droit de l’environnement actuel, révèle en détail les carences de l’ingénierie institutionnelle contemporaine, fondée sur des préoccupations politiques de gestion pacifiée d’une société plurielle et de rééquilibrages entre communautés et territoires pour compenser des retards de développement dus aux erreurs du passé.Il existe toutefois un contexte favorable depuis quelques années pour réenchanter la protection juridique de la nature et de ses éléments. Des gouvernements ou des juges sous d’autres latitudes reconnaissent la personnalité juridique à des éléments de la nature. Il est désormais possible de dépasser une conception restrictive du pluralisme juridique comme cohabitation étanche d’ordres juridiques irréconciliables et d’avancer vers un métissage du droit endogène et d’un ordre juridique associé aux formes de l’Etat moderne. Nous suivrons de près la co-construction, avec les populations et les autorités coutumières, par la Province des Iles Loyauté, d’un droit de l’environnement négocié et de principes innovants qui permettent enfin de prendre en compte pleinement dans le droit positif la vision Kanak de la nature. Grâce à une méthode participative d’élaboration du droit, il apparaît que l’on peut concilier, les pluralismes (culturels, sociaux, politiques et juridiques) de la Nouvelle-Calédonie du 21ème siècle, dans le cadre d’un droit négocié, seul garant de l’effectivité du droit pour protéger l’environnement naturel dans un contexte global de changements environnementaux. / What environmental law for which society? With a method that combines a socio-anthropological examination and a legal examination, this thesis raises the question for New Caledonia, through an analysis of the recent past, contemporary difficulties and a re-foundation made possible by an evolution of legal thought and by means of tools developed recently elsewhere, which have made it possible, for example, to recognize the legal personality of elements of nature.Recognized as a global hotspot of biodiversity, with the exploitation of its huge nickel resources being a major environmental threat, how does New Caledonia, nearly 150 years after its annexation by France and its commitment for thirty years on the path of decolonization, fare in protecting its natural environment? The answer we get from the study of positive law, institutions, comparative law, speeches and field work is clear: the law applicable today in New Caledonia is the result of an exogenous rationalization of social relations. It is in fact unsuited to the cultural context of the Pacific. Balanced Man-Nature relations have been "disenchanted" by Christianization, colonization and scientific rationalization. As in many places, in New Caledonia, the sacredness that characterized these relationships has been sidelined in favor of what we have chosen to call "Noah’s complex" and which has become the foundation of any environmental policy. Our diagnosis on the limits of the current environmental law, reveals in detail the shortcomings of contemporary institutional engineering, based on political concerns for a peaceful management of a plural society and for rebalancing between communities and territories to compensate for underdevelopment due to past mistakes.However, there is a favorable context in recent years to re-enchant the legal protection of nature and its elements. Governments or judges in other latitudes recognize the legal personality of elements of nature. It is now possible to go beyond a restrictive conception of legal pluralism as the tight coexistence of irreconcilable legal orders and to advance towards a hybridization of the endogenous right and a legal order associated with the forms of the modern state. We will closely follow the co-construction, with the populations and the customary authorities, by the Loyalty Islands Province, of a negotiated environmental law and innovative principles that finally allow to fully take into account within positive law the Kanak vision of nature. Thanks to a participative method of elaboration of the law, it appears that we can reconcile the pluralisms (cultural, social, political and legal) of New Caledonia in the 21st century, within the framework of a negotiated law that is the only guarantee for the effectiveness of the law to protect the natural environment in a context of global environmental change.

No description available.