Abstract – In this workshop, Dr. Naepels will discuss the ways in which his Political Anthropology projects in rural areas that have experienced colonial government and indirect rule (French in New Caledonia, Belgian in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) have led him to consider the contributions and difficulties of using (private, missionary, administrative) archives to understand contemporary social situations. He will focus particularly on the conditions of production, conservation and access to archives relevant to a Political Anthropology of the Contemporary. This meeting takes the form of a practical workshop with students confronted with the articulation between contemporary ethnographic fieldwork and the use of archives.

About– Michel Naepels is a social anthropologist based in Paris, France. He is Director of Studies (Full Professor) at The School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), Director of Research (Senior Researcher) at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). His books include War and Other Means: Violence and Power in Houaïlou (New Caledonia), Australian National University Press, and Dans la détresse: Une anthropologie de la vulnérabilité, Éditions de l’EHESS.