Le chemin de Léon Damas, sur les traces de la Tortue. Vers une géographie "vernaculaire" de la Guyane ? (Léon Damas' path, on the tracks of the Turtle, Toward a "vernacular" geography of Guyana)

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How could we build a "vernacular" geography of Guyana, and why should we try to do so ? Based on Léon Damas' essays, this paper shows how some construction principles and some specific forms can be identified, as Damas simultaneously voiced an "official" and an "indigenous" vision of Guyana. The principles and forms identified cannot be retrieved from a general "universal" geographic knowledge and considered as an autonomous sphere. Their universality, i.e. their ability to describe some of the world's dimensions seldom considered by the European geography, indicates that indeed, such geographies are an essential contribution to the perception of world's form and to the understanding of man's place within it.