Un trophée fait fille ou lorsque l’étranger n’existe pas

• Main Author: Simonne Pauwels
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative 2009-03-01
• Series: Ateliers d'Anthropologie
• Subjects: fertility; otherness; predation; prey
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/ateliers/8212

A trophy made daughter, or when strangers do not exist. This article described how, on the island of Selaru, any man or woman, or even a sea-cow or a cut-off head, landing on the shore for the first time, is considered a prey, spoils to be thrown back into the sea or introduced into the village. In the latter case, the new arrival is ritually transformed into a relative before nightfall. For the anthropologist this “instant integration” is surprising. But this is a predatory society that integrates all those that it can transform into family and relegates the others to the margins, by qualifying them as “sorcerers” or “non-humans”. However, they all play a role in the majors predations - hunting and head-hunting - required for the fertility of women and gardens.