Sociologies (Jun 2014)
Le sociologue et la croyance oblique. Rendre justice à la faillibilité des institutions
Abstract
The anthropology of Jeanne Favret-Saada is founded on a politics that meant to reduce the asymmetry between the knowing subject and the known objet in relation to enunciation. Such a politics permits Jeanne Favret-Saada to bring to light the principles that structure the belief in witchcraft in France (Bocage), but it seems not to allow her to reveal the aspects, and yet component elements of that institution, which are neither likewise amiable nor equally good for everyone. Given that, the article starts with focusing on the enunciative situation that binds together the bewitched indigenous and the anthropologist: would the telling not be going on with some mutualisation of belief in this case? A second enunciative situation, in which transsexual Agnes and sociologist Harold Garfinkel are facing one another, will then show the possibility of a double game in front of faith. It will also lead us to the following conclusion: as sociologists, we must be cultivating a sidelong belief in institutions that we describe. Being able to take into account their fallibility is possible only on this condition.
