Socio-anthropologie (Dec 2023)
Variations immersives
Abstract
This article explores individual and collective experiences of aquatic immersion over the course of a lifetime, linking them to the recent history of aquatic practices, spaces and facilities in France. Based on an empirical interview survey of an ordinary population of swimmers and non-swimmers, the analysis reveals contrasts between practices and waters frequented according to place of residence, era, season and time of life. To gain access, 25 people of advanced years were interviewed to explore the different ways of being and doing with water. Swimming "almost naked" in seas inhabited by multiple creatures does not provoke the same sensations when they are hot or cold, calm or agitated, and are even different from those expressed when bathing in rivers or swimming laps in the pool. Bathing water is multiple, always situated and circumstantial.
