L'objet de cet article est de presenter les situations des medias locaux, surtout les radios, et de montrer revolution des medias a travers les biographies (histoires personnelles) de journalistes actifs en Republique du Benin. Par rapport a la sociologie, l'anthropologie est en retard sur l'etude des medias, mais elle a entame la recherche sur ce theme dans differentes regions du monde pour relativiser une vue centralisee sur l'Occident qui oppose mondialisation au localisme. Les etudes precedentes ont souvent decrit les cas regionaux individuellement pour proposer des problemes generaux. Cet article, dans sa micro-approche, accorde de l'importance au cours de la vie personnelle pour reflechir aux medias et a la democratie et completer les etudes precedentes. Nous considerons une relation entre les personnes et les medias en cours de democratisation a travers les biographies des personnes qui travaillent dans les medias. Pour prendre une vue d'ensemble des medias, nous faisons la comparaison entre la radio nationale et la radio privee. Le Benin (ex Dahomey) a declare son independance et s'est separe de la France en 1960 pour etablir ulterieurement un regime socialiste en 1972. Sous ce regime, l'Office de Radiodiffusion et Television du Benin (ORTB) a ete utilise comme instrument de propagande d'Etat. Apres la transition democratique en 1990, le nouveau gouvernement a lance la demonopolisation des ondes en 1997. L'ORTB a etendu son reseau a chaque region et a commence a diffuser des emissions dans les multiples langues regionales. Plusieurs stations de radios privees ont egalement ete creees et se sont surtout focalisees sur le divertissement, avec des caracteristiques originales comme l'invitation des citoyens a participer aux emissions. En diffusant les voix des citoyens ainsi que leurs plaintes envers le gouvernement, elles ont vulgarise le dialogue politique au sein du peuple beninois. Dans cette situation, il apparait que les medias sont des outils de democratisation de la societe, car ils ont permis des dialogues entre les citoyens, mais il apparait qu'ils sont egalement une des bases du developpement de la societe. Afin de comprendre la democratic du point de vue du peuple, nous considerons des biographies de quatre personnes, travaillant essentiellement dans les medias. Nous analysons en detail leur biographie, leur reflexion sur le domaine social ainsi que la maniere dont ils menent leur vie au milieu des medias. Interviewe 1 : comme il ne pouvait pas trouver un emploi dans le domaine juridique qui est sa specialisation, il a suivi une courte formation avant de rentrer a l'ORTB. Il apprecie la democratie au Benin parce qu'elle permet la liberte d'opinion. Il a par ailleurs ete nomme au poste d'attache de presse du ministre du Travail, mais son double role de journaliste et d'attache de presse est critique. Interviewe 2 : il est journaliste de la station publique et est un pionnier dans le milieu des medias au Benin. Il a ete professeur d'histoire, directeur du musee national, ecrivain, et a par la suite a travaille dans des pays etrangers comme journaliste depuis les annees 1970. De retour au Benin en 1996, il a cree une station de radio FM privee grace a son experience et ses propres fonds. Il soutient les activites artistiques et culturelles africaines pour compenser les pertes culturelles depuis la colonisation. Il soutient la democratie en encourageant les musiciens et les artistes. Interviewee 3 : elle a commence par travailler chez un emetteur local, puis a change pour occuper son poste actuel chez l'emetteur de la capitale. Elle avait souligne sa capacite linguistique, ainsi qu'une experience theatrale, pour obtenir ses postes. Elle apprecie l'installation de la democratie liberate, mais fait remarquer que celle-ci suscite aussi beaucoup de concurrence

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This paper aims to examine the interaction between French technological anthropology, pioneered by M. Mauss, and its Anglo-American counterpart over the past 20 years. It will further discuss how that encounter has evoked significant implications for recent developments in the theory of technological anthropology and archaeology. The year 1993 represented a turning point for that issue, when A. Leroi-Gourhan's seminal work, Le Geste et La Parole [1964], was translated into English as Gesture and Speech [1993]. During the same period (early 1990s), several attempts were made to reevaluate the French tradition of technological anthropology for the English-speaking audience. An issue of the Cambridge Archaeology Journal 9 (1) [1990] entitled "Technology in the Humanities" was one of the earliest attempts by French and British discussants to participate in a conference focused on the interpretation of archaeological material. Also, the first text of French technological anthropology, by P. Lemonnier, was published in English around the same time as Elements for an Anthropology of Technology [1992]. In Le Geste et La Parole, Leroi-Grouhan proposed the concept of the chaine operatoire for the integrated analysis of the co-evolution of skeletal structure, technology (e.g., stone tools), intelligence, and language ability. The concept of the chaine operatoire has been translated as "work chain," or "operational sequence," in English-language literature. Recently, however, the concept has been described using in its original French expression [e.g. de Baune et al. 2009]. The chaine operatoire is defined as the series of operations involved in any transformation of matter by human beings, including the body [Lemonnier 1992: 26]. That process is a sequence of technical operations taking raw material and shaping it into a product in a series of discrete steps, each linked to the preceding and following steps. The sum of the operational sequences form the technological system of a given society, which is as much sociological as it is technological [Cresswell 1993: 182]. In relation to that concept, frequent discussions have been made of the distinction between the French terms technique and technologie as well as that between savoir-fair and connaissance [e.g. Pelegrin 1990; Sigaut 1999]. The techniques of making artifacts do not lie in the minds of humans, but are dependent both on matter and the human body. For instance, weaving a basket or digging a dugout canoe is not a process of materializing a mental model. Rather, it is a continual interaction of matter, body and situated cognition. Since humans put meaning into the very production of techniques, as well as deriving meaning out of existing technical elements, we should also consider social representations of technologies as channels through which social phenomena influence technological systems: thus, the technological choice by a given society is understood as a key issue [Lemonnier 1992,1993; Goto 2010]. Originally, Leroi-Gourhan used the concept of chaine operatoire to analyze selectivity and the sequential actions of the knapping of stone tools, but the concept has been expanded by later generations of scholars (F. Sigaut, F. Cresswell, P. Lemonier, and M. Balfe, among others) for the analysis of a variety of technological processes: the study of brewing, salt-making, pottery, water wheels, and so on. In addition, the concept of technological choices has been applied to "high-tech" cases, such as the role of social representation in the development of airplane designs. There have been similar approaches in the English-speaking tradition of anthropology. Behavioral chains in making artifacts have been explored in several ethnographies [e.g. Osgood 1940; Sillitoe 1988], and an analysis of lithic and pottery decorations in archaeology has also used a similar analytical process [e.g.

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This study describes the process of creating pots by analyzing the patterns of hand and finger movements among Aari woman potters in southwestern Ethiopia. The whole process of pottery making, including the distribution of hand and finger movements, has been established by negotiation with the natural environment through pottery making with their hands and fingers. The distribution of pottery is regarded as an important social behavior among the Aari people, because it entails the expression of aani, which means "hand" in the Aari language. Potters engage in digging clay, forming and firing pots, and selling the pots in markets to farmers, who belong to a different social group from that of the potters. Negotiation in pottery making means repeated hand and finger movements to determine the characteristics of the clay and to work the clay to form pots. The Aari people make around 50 different kinds of cooking pots of various shapes and sizes. Although the pots have four basic shapes, the Aari people focus on the size of each part of the pot. As of 2005, the population of the Aari was about 200,000. Aari people belong to either the farmers' group (kantsa) or the craftworkers' group (mana). Intermarriage and the sharing of meals between members of the two groups are prohibited. The mana are further divided into three subclasses: gashimana, tilamana, and fakamana. The tilamana consist of women potters and their families and relatives. The number of potters was about 350 in 2002, representing about three percent of the total Aari population. Intermarriage and the sharing of meals between members of those subclasses are also prohibited. The members of the tilamana live in the same village, near areas where clay is readily available. The village usually consists of members of a single clan. Therefore, once a tilamana girl accepts a proposal of marriage from a tilamana boy, she moves from her father's house to her husband's house. Children who are born as tilamana grow up in their mothers' workplaces. When girls become six years old, they start making pots themselves. When a girl is over 15, she gets married and moves out of her father's house and into her husband's. When women potters get married, they are expected to fulfill their social obligations at each life stage, while continuing their pottery making. In the uuta period, that is, in the first three years of marriage, potters are expected to make and fire pots with different kinds of clay from their natal village and to establish their household lives. After the uuta period, potters enter the ma period. Some potters have children during that period, while some get divorced and go back their fathers' villages. In any case, women potters in the ma period are expected to make a certain amount of money to support their relatives. Some women continue to make pots as they did in the ma period, even when they have grandchildren, known as akin. The study examines the relationships between the stages of pottery making and the process of developing techniques according to the stages of a woman's life. For example, some potters were unable to make their livelihood through pottery because their pots broke during the forming and firing stages after they married and moved from their father's village to their husband's village. One such potter had been negotiating with the natural environment for about six months to establish her own distribution process, and she focused on finding a process according to her own aani. Farmers also evaluated women's pots using references to aani. Their forms of expression used variations on the word aani to indicate that the pots made by a certain potter were durable, and they tried to form special relationships with the potters, who are culturally and socially marginalized among the Aari people. Those relationships invest the

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This paper discusses fishing technology (including both techniques and fishing knowledge and skills as body movements and actions) from the perspectives of "chaine operatoire," a term and concept originally provided by Leroi-Gourhan [1971], and the concept of "social process" as described by Lemonnier [e,g. 1993]. Lemonnier argues that "the human actors, source of energy, tools, raw materials, gestures and mental procedures involved in a given action aimed at obtaining some material result generally fit together physically." However, he also says that "besides their material function, in most instances some of these elements, as well as their various uses, also cohere and play a role in some symbolic aspect of social life," and thus "technical representations are part of wider symbolic life" [Lemonnier 1993: 4]. Following his discussion, I add another aspect of the interactive process of technology and nature or environment, and investigate the case of Sama (Bajau) fishing along the eastern coast of Borneo in Malaysia. The Sama or Bajau are well-known as a maritime people who are probably the most widely-dispersed ethnolinguistic group indigenous to island Southeast Asia. Fishing is one of their major subsistence economies, even today. Their lifestyle and subsistence have changed rapidly since the 19th century, but they still form two main groups: (1) the Land Sama, the dominant population group, who have Malaysian citizenship and are engaged in a variety of economic activities, including farming, fishing, trade, and salaried work, and (2) the Sea Sama, who remain a minority population in the region. Among those Sama groups, I surveyed small-scale fishermen of the Land Sama and fishermen of the Sea Sama, who are considered illegal trespassers and mainly inhabit remote islands in the district. Based on my quantitative and observational research of their fishing activities over 100 separate occasions, this paper discusses the possible aspects of "chaine operatoire" or the social process and the interactive process of their fishing technology. Fishing in shallow coral-reef water is the most defining attribute of Sama fishing, and such a technique exhibits prominent characteristics indicative of their fishing methods and activities. The important characteristics of the Sama fishing are four-fold: (1) a variety of net fishing, as nets enable the capture of a wider variety of fish in shallow coral reefs, (2) the participation of women and children in fishing activities, as most Sama fishing is practiced in shallow water with little risk while not requiring intensive labor, (3) the small size of their boats and gear, and the small number of fishermen engaged in each fishing activity, as such boats and gear are more suited to fishing in coral seas, (4) the strong effects of tidal, lunar and seasonal cycles, as most fishing takes place in shallow water. Another important feature of Sama fishing is the strong economic component of their fishing, which is both a subsistence endeavor providing the dominant source of protein in the local diet, and something that is deeply dependent on the market economy. With such discussions and detailed descriptions of the Sama fishing activities-including the process for the selection of items (e.g. fishing gear, boats, and engines), fishing methods (e.g. netting, spearing, and angling), the day and time for fishing, fishing grounds, and the use of the catch-I clarify how all those processes in fishing practices and technology mutually affect each practice of the fishing process. Among those fishing processes, I describe in detail the body movements and fishing practices of the Sama fishermen to show how their fishing skill and techniques (i.e., knowledge) respond to the surrounding marine environment and nature. Furthermore, I also confirm that the actors' economic and social situation

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This paper analyzes an assemblage of technologies practiced by the indigenous Inuit societies in the Canadian Arctic. By proposing a series of technological practices of human beings as world poiesis machines, I examine the potential of the natural-cultural anthropological approach to human technology based on the monistic worldview of nature-human.' For that purpose, I elucidate the mechanism of the Inuit subsistence system in chapter II. In that system, a continual distinction is drawn between Inuit' and 'wildlife.' That world does not have a pre-existing 'nature' vs. 'human' dichotomy, and maintains itself by ceaselessly bringing forth such categories into an ordered and systematized life-world called 'nuna' (land). The practice of subsistence is not only the economic activity that distributes the resources necessary for sustaining life, but also the social practice that ecologically connects the Inuit people with wild animals. Social relationships among the Inuit are provided through such practices. Moreover, the practice of subsistence is also a practice of cultural and ethical activities that actualize the world view that the Inuit strive to achieve. In that sense, the subsistence system of the Inuit lies at the core of their politics, economy, society, and culture, and binds those activities together. In other words, it establishes the order of the life-world with a single breath. As the Inuit often emphasize, it is their way of life that forms the foundation of their lives. In chapter III, I investigate the way in which that subsistence system flexibly incorporates a series of technologies practiced by the Inuit in their society to stabilize their life-world. I focus on the subsistence technologies and ecological knowledge that provide the very foundation of their engagement with wildlife, as well as the societal knowledge and technologies necessary for their social interactions. The establishment of a series of technologies-such as the 'tactical' techniques to entice wild animals in subsistence activities, the ecological knowledge necessary for these activities, and the art of social intercourse to maintain trust and cooperation among the Inuit-is the logical consequence of the subsistence system that ceaselessly establishes and maintains the order of the Inuit life-world. Therefore, such technologies should be understood as coherently-integrated parts of a complex system of technologies according to the principle of a subsistence system. In that system, the circulation of the social relationships among the Inuit and the ecological relationships with various species of wild animals are closed. Nonetheless, the system lets the Inuit acquire all their resources, including food, as well as the means to adjust within their social relationships, including politics and economy; thus, it provides for their entire lives. The Inuit people are connected to the globalized world network, but can also maintain the autonomy of that subsistence as a way of life so long as they continue practicing their subsistence activities within that closed system. Provided that the social relationships among the Inuit and the ecological relationships between humans and wild animals are cyclically generated, the system can maintain itself even if it accommodates things from the outside. As previous anthropological research in the Arctic has indicated, Inuit society can be (and will be) sustained based on the continuing practice of subsistence, even with the introduction of high-tech gadgets into their subsistence techniques, and with the new habit of eating processed food such as hamburgers. In that sense, the technological complex system of the Inuit society can be understood as a world poiesis machine that flexibly creates, stabilizes, and maintains 'nuna' according to the principle of the subsistence system. In chapter

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The content and amount of the food intake of the husband in a Mongolian nomad household-referred to in the paper as Household T-were surveyed to make clear what constitutes the diet of Mongolian nomads: self-produced animal products, such as milk and/or milk products and meat and/or innards, as well as purchased foods such as cereals. A discussion was also made of how the current social environment affects their dietary habits. During the period of milking from the nomads' own livestock, the food intake was characterized by meat and/or innards, contributing to between one-third and one-half, while milk and/or milk products and wheat flour contributed to between one-tenth and one-fourth. On the other hand, during the non-milking period, meat and/or innards contributed to between one-fourth and two-fifths of the food intake, with wheat flour increasing its share to between one-third and one-half of the food intake, with milk and/or milk products decreasing their share to between almost nothing at all and one-tenth. Hence, through the case study in the milking and non-milking periods, Household T's strategy of food intake is to mainly consume meat and/or innards, and to alter its consumption of cereals and milk and/or milk products according to the situation, such as the amount of food stock and slaughtered livestock available. Although the amount of milk and/or milk products consumed tended to increase during the milking period, in contrast, during the non-milking period, the amount of milk and/or milk products consumed tended to decrease or be eliminated altogether, while that of cereals tended to increase. Also, Household T consumed around 2,000 kcal/day of meat and/or innards and milk and/or milk products entirely during the milking and non-milking periods. For the Mongolian nomad, meat and/or innards, on the one hand, and milk and/or milk products, on the other, basically form a mutually complementary relationship as foods. Those food intakes are the strategy of Mongolian nomads, who depend largely on livestock for their livelihood. However, more Mongolian nomads have now come to receive a pension. Since those who receive a pension tend to use up their entire stock of milk and/or milk products during the winter and spring, and then come to depend more on cereals purchased from the market, Mongolian nomads currently find themselves in a situation in which the pension scheme destroys the mutually complementary relationship between milk and/ or milk products and meat and/or innards.

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The aim of this essay is to discuss the concept of biswas, or belief, among Protestants in Nepal through scrutinizing the cases collected in the Lalitpur District of the Kathmandu Valley, where numerous churches and Protestant-related organizations are located. Not only is biswas the word most commonly used to express their belief in God, but also, as it appears in the Bible, in the Hymn Book, and in the wide range of Protestant literature, it is the standardized vocabulary of Protestants. However, biswas is more commonly the word used in a variety of other contexts, from personal relations and economic activities to shamanism, but hardly ever for gods in the context of Hinduism and Buddhism, which are the indigenous and dominant religions in the area. Christianity, including Protestants, is the only dharma or religion that employs the word. According to a missionary who has been involved in Bible translation for nearly 40 years, it was probably chosen since it is the closest term for "belief among the other alternatives. In anthropology, the concept of "belief," or its verb form "to believe," has been brought up in linguistic discussions time after time. Among recent scholars, Joel Robbins [2007] formulated two meanings of the concept regarding its objectives. The first usage is known as the "to believe that" model, which takes propositions as its objective, meaning "to accept that certain propositions are true about the world" [Robbins 2007: 14]. The second usage is known as the "to believe in" model, which takes persons or gods as its objective, as it means "to trust it [the object of belief]" and implies "a commitment to act accordingly" [Robbins 2007: 14]. According to Robbins, the second usage has successfully captured "believers" of various religions. The biswas of Nepali Protestants, too, seems as if it perfectly satisfies the second usage, as its objective is God or Jesus, and as it "generally connotes trust" [Pigg 1996: 190], and a commitment to act according to the rules derived from the Bible is immensely important among Protestants. However, before assuming biswas and "belief" to be the same, further research is still needed because the quality of trust and commitment to act in biswas and those of "belief" may not be homogeneous. Therefore, the aim of this essay is, more specifically, to analyze the quality of trust and commitment to act connoted by biswas. By doing so, this essay not only clarifies the characteristics of biswas, but also makes contributions to the comparative study of beliefs.

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Recent anthropological studies reveal that the societal movements of seeking "Africanity" in the Atlantic perimeter have been changing under the current postcolonial and globalization situation. The object of my research, the Rastafari in Jamaica, is one such movement, and my research mainly focuses on how its devotees, known as Rastafarians, live as "Africans." The data used in the paper were collected through fieldwork undertaken on two separate occasions, in 2005 and 2006. This paper aims to describe the actual condition of the economic activities of the Ethiopia Africa Black International Congress (E.A.B.I.C.) Rastafarians. Rastafari arose in Jamaica in the 1930s as a part of a worldwide religious movement. Rastafarians worship Haile Selassie, who was crowned emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. They regard themselves as "Africans" as part of their religious practice, and have created an "African" lifestyle. Most of the previous studies of the Rastafari in Jamaica have explained that poverty and feelings of despair under the (post-) colonial situation were the major factors contributing to the emergence of Rastafarians. However, little is known about how Rastafarians have earned their living as "Africans." This paper discusses the specific economic activities associated with their doctrine, and the changes in those activities since the death of the movement's founder. In Chapter 2, I introduce E.A.B.I.C. and discuss how it has changed historically. The organization was established during the mid-1950s by Prince Emmanuel Charles Edwards (called "Prince" in short). It worships Haile Selassie, Prince, and the famous pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey. The African lifestyle of E.A.B.I.C. places great value on economic self-reliance. In 1972, it began to develop a commune called the "Bobo Shanty." After Prince died in 1994, great changes occurred in the Bobo Shanty, including a succession race and power struggles. Some members lost faith and left the commune. Distrust among the remaining members resulted in the collapse of the Bobo Shanty system. Since the mid-1990s, many reggae musicians converted to E.A.B.I.C, and have popularized some of its phases. Because of all those changes, Bobo Shanty's economic activities have switched from being group-based to more personal-based. In Chapter 3, I analyze the economic activities of the members living in the Bobo Shanty based on my field data. During my fieldwork, there were about 60 regular residents. Most members engaged in "African" economic activities that represented their "Africanity," such as making traditional brooms and "guidances" (i.e., badges), and selling drinks such as wine and juice. Because of the significant impact of the converted reggae musicians, some guidance makers have used them as motifs, while other members have invented "Commercial Niyahbinghi" music, and some have begun to sing reggae music. This paper reveals that while the situation surrounding E.A.B.I.C. has changed, its members have not given up living as "Africans." I aim to research on how their products, as well as their knowledge and ideals regarding economic activities, have been received and revised.

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