Fondements disciplinaires de l'anthropologie française au XIXe siècle. Perspectives historiographiques

Abstract

The foundation of French anthropology during the 19th century. Some historiographical perspectives. Claude Blanckaert [31-54]. One often confounds the notion of scientific discipline with its contemporary objects as if a «great thought» preluded its emergence and accomplishment. Or modem science does not exist, from a sociological and historical point of view, without a regulatory structure nor specialized institutions. This article examines the different arguments of a functional analysis of the concept of Institution. It shows that the disciplinary construction of French anthropology began in the 1830's as a natural history of man, keeping its program until the end of the 19th century. Thence, the celebrated Durkheimian breakthrough of the beginning of the century appears like a historiographical problem rather than a practical solution of the so-called French delay.