Temps passé et temps ressenti : les graffiti de l'ancienne prison de Brignoles

Abstract

Past times, passage of time : graffiti in the former prison of Brignoles. This paper intends to evidence first the different representations of the wolf in the debates aroused by its arrival in the Alpes-Maritimes. In front of the heavy pressure undergone by the catde breeders, ethologists are trying to explain that the wolf s slaughters can be viewed as resulting of two types of distinct behaviours : the one that is adopted during predation on wild fauna, and the one that concerns domestic live-stock. They suggest it is the behaviour of panicking flocks that induces carnages. Following an anthropomorphising process, some publications show the wolf as a victim in the sense that, being deprived of its natural preys, it is in a way compelled to fall back on flocks. Besides, its dangerousness for man is smoothed out, or admitted only in case of rabies. What is really at stake in this debate, is the will, for ecologists, to save eradicated species in order to rebuild an ecological balance. The myth of the attacking wolf, as conveyed by oral and written traditions, is thus replaced by an ideology that is in fact another kind of mythic thinking. We then trace the history of stands and argumentations as they appeared in the press from 1982 to 2001, as well as measures proposed by officiai institutions. Evidences of damages caused by stray dogs added complexity to the debate and fed the controversy. Therefore, the wolf as an animal is progressively disappea-ring, and eventually becoming a standard raised by each part to defend their cause. It is used as an argument to denounce environmental measures on the one hand, and unsuited pastoral practices on the other hand.