Ethnicité, culture et langue : aspects démographiques

-

-

The influence of religion on individual behavior is generally evaluated on the basis of the declaration collected at the moment of the survey or census. Religious affiliation is thus implicitly considered to be singular, definitive and unambiguous. This perspective is debatable, however, in populations where different religions coexist in inclusive fashion, as is often the case in Sub-Saharan Africa. Where individuals frequently change religions during their lives, where syncretism is common, can the influence of religion on individual behavior really be captured in a satisfactory way through a variable for a single moment? Could it be that the often minor effect attributed to the variable “religion” results from the limitations of this recording? To examine these questions, we will use longitudinal data from a longitudinal tracking study in Mali, which included detailed recording of religious histories. We will evaluate the suitability of the classic variable on religion in surveys in light of various indicators of religious membership and mobility, on one hand, and by comparing differentials of behavior with respect to child rearing and matrimonial behavior according to the chosen criterion for religious affiliation, on the other.

This communication will focus mainly on the period of “French Algeria” in the administrative sense of the term, with a rapid overview of the consequences beyond independence. Its object will be political demography, and specifically the influence of the political on demographic evolution and, more briefly, backlash. After rapidly recalling controversial data preceding this period, and a succinct presentation of the evolution of mortality during the 80 following years, we will analyze how the political situation maintained elevated fertility, even as certain determinants of its decrease were theoretically in place, the principal one being decreasing mortality (Jean-Claude Chesnais). The latter was accompanied by an incipient urbanization and by cohabitation with a less fertile population, factors that should have worked in the same direction. This will lead us to evoke elements that linked mortality and fertility in Europe and that were not transposable to Algeria, notably due to the colonial situation. One of the conclusions of this analysis illustrates in demography the observation already produced in other disciplines according to which the colonial era was undermined by its own contradictions.

There exist two Basque Countries: one situated in France (or Iparralde) and another in Spain (or Euskadi). The first is integrated into the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques and is not officially recognized, whereas the second forms an autonomous Spanish community. Although the Basque world is characterized by a certain degree of cultural unity, the result of these different legal realities is that in Iparralde, the proportion of Basque speakers has been decreasing continuously since the 19th century because of failures of transmission within families; while in Euskadi, on the contrary, recognition of the co-official character of the Basque language alongside Castilian, as well as its immersive teaching within public schools, has allowed an increase in the proportion of Basque speakers in the population. Statistical analysis of the survey Basque identity and culture at the beginning of the 21st century [Identité et culture basques au début du XXIe siècle] (2005) shows that knowledge of the Basque language has an impact on the identitary construction of the population, promoting the feeling of Basque belonging. This belonging is reinforced in Euskadi by its autonomous status, which confers a certain legitimacy upon it in the attribution of the Basque identity. In Iparralde, the absence of official recognition of Basque culture has led to the decline of the language, feeding frustrations and the construction, in response, of reactive identities.