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L'utilisation récurrente de notions anthropologiques de "groupe domestique" ou de "mode de production domestique" dans l'analyse du processus de changement social chez les Bédouins d'Arabie Saoudite, ne semble pas toujours adéquate. Reposant sur une conception fausse d'une société anhistorique, enfermée dans la sous-productivité, elle permet de justifier, avec la caution académique, des politiques de développement appliquées à un groupe défavorisé. (Résumé d'auteur)

This paper is a philosophical reflection around the concept of a cultural trait. A trait is any perceptible or intangible characteristic aspect. In addition, to be cultural, a trait must not be intentional or part of a plan, and its diffusion and repetition – even when initially intentional – must elude control. Traits are inseparable from a cultural space and power relations that are the source of their value, and that govern their spread. Consequently, cultural traits – like “the style of a period” – can only be recognized a posteriori and at distance. Traits can be mapped in different ways, but a map is no simple object. Maps can vary along two dimensions: dynamic-static and conceptual – perceptual. Some maps are schemas or diagrams. Classifying the maps used by Zenni to illustrate the history of jazz, and comparing them with analog maps from the 1970s, I show how maps depend from the observer's (cultural) ideas. Some maps evidently express a search for hierarchy and origins. But, in contemporary philosophy, the question of the origins constitutes a problem. For Michel Foucault, history is not a search for the origin, on the contrary, it must “dispel the chimera of the origin”, because passion for the origin is functional to reassurance or self-reassurance, and there are no single origins.

In questo lavoro, basato su una ricerca etnografica in Arabia Saudita, si cerca di delineare un modello interpretativo delle relazioni tra beduini nomadi e Stato alla luce dell’idea di “sviluppo”. Il Governo Saudita ha infatti attuato (a partire dagli anni 1970 ad oggi) una serie di interventi nel settore nomade adottando, come idea centrale, quella di sviluppo così come questa si configura nei discorsi delle agenzie internazionali e di quelle organizzazioni di ricerca europee e nordamericane specializzate in questo genere di ricerche: convertire i nomedi pastori (beduini) all’agricoltura. L’ articolo dimostra come non soltanto le politiche di intervento messe in atto nel settore nomade dallo stato saudita, e fondate su una immagine “progressiva” e “lineare” dello sviluppo, siano fallite, ma mostra anche come i gruppi nomadi abbiano saputo reinterpretare questi interventi alla luce delle loro esigenze, e di utilizzare le risorse messe a disposizione dallo stato saudita in maniera tale da dare una svolta alla loro economia pur mantenendola legata, contro le aspettative governative, alle attività pastorali.

The recurrent use of anthropological concepts and notions such as "domestic group' or "domestic mode of production' do not always seem appropriate, especially in connection with the study of the Bedouin of the Arabian Peninsula. Such notions appear to be based on false conceptions of an ahistorical society suffering from underproductivity and make divert us from a real comprehension of the current dynamics which characterize the Bedouin household. Far from being an underproductive unit, the Bedouin household represents the last stronghold of the Bedouin identity in front of a rapidly changing economy, the decline of tribal institutions and their effects on the internal cohesion of the whole community. -Author