Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem

The combined knowledge of word meanings and grammatical rules does not allow a listener to grasp the intended meaning of a speaker's utterance. Pragmatic inferences on the part of the listener are also required. The present work focuses on the processing of ironic utterances (imagine a slow day being described as "really productive") because these clearly require the listener to go beyond the linguistic code. Such utterances are advantageous experimentally because they can serve as their own controls in the form of literal sentences (now imagine an active day being described as "really productive") as we employ techniques from electrophysiology (EEG). Importantly, the results confirm previous ERP findings showing that irony processing elicits an enhancement of the P600 component (Regel et al., 2011). More original are the findings drawn from Time Frequency Analysis (TFA) and especially the increase of power in the gamma band in the 280-400 time-window, which points to an integration among different streams of information relatively early in the comprehension of an irony. This represents a departure from traditional accounts of language processing which generally view pragmatic inferences as late-arriving. We propose that these results indicate that unification operations between the linguistic code and contextual information play a critical role throughout the course of irony processing and earlier than previously thought.

Abstract Philo’s perception of Rome is less positive than has generally been argued. Although Philo appreciated the pax romana and the religious freedom generally enjoyed by Jews in the Roman Empire, he was nevertheless critical of Rome. In particular, he rejected the idea that the Roman empire was the outcome of divine providence and would last forever. He opposed the spiritual kingship of Israel to the worldly and transitory dominion of Rome. Moreover, he expected Roman rule to fade away in the end, and Israel to blossom as no other nation ever had in the past.

The commonly held belief that the emergence and establishment of farming communities in the Levant was a smooth socio-economic continuum during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (ca. 12,000-9,000 cal BP) with only rare minor disruptions is challenged by recently obtained evidence from this region. Using a database of archaeological radiocarbon dates and diagnostic material culture records from a series of key sites in the northern Levant we show that the hitherto apparent long-term continuity interpreted as the origins and consolidation of agricultural systems was not linear and uninterrupted. A major cultural discontinuity is observed in the archaeological record around 10,000 cal BP in synchrony with a Holocene Rapid Climate Change (RCC), a short period of climatic instability recorded in the Northern Hemisphere. This study demonstrates the interconnectedness of the first agricultural economies and the ecosystems they inhabited, and emphasizes the complex nature of human responses to environmental change during the Neolithic period in the Levant. Moreover, it provides a new environmental-cultural scenario that needs to be incorporated in the models reconstructing both the establishment of agricultural economy in southwestern Asia and the impact of environmental changes on human populations.

This article tackles the issue of the fate of the Canaanites at the time of the conquest according to some rabbinic sources which contain an unusual tradition, according to which some of the Canaanites obeyed God’s will and left the Land that was to be given to the children of Israel. Acknowledging their merit, God gave them another land in Africa and allowed that the Land of Israel be called ‘Canaan’. It is argued that this tradition does not merely represent an attempt to defend the right of Israel to the Land, but reflects a genuine theological and ethical questioning about the fate of the Canaanites and, more generally, about the ability of Gentiles to know and obey God’s commandments. Finally, the exceptional character of this rabbinic tradition is emphasized through a comparison with a similar yet different tradition in the Hypothetica .

The southern Levant and northern Mesopotamia are two areas in which the potter's wheel seems to have appeared independently. New data enable us to undertake a comparison between both regions. As a result, it appears that in both regions the context of production of the first wheel-made vessels was very similar. Wheel-coiled bowls were made by craft specialists attached to some kind of elite and responding to the demand of this same elite for fine vessels. Thus the potter's wheel was not adopted to improve productivity, but to produce to strong vessels with status value. As a consequence, this technology was not transferred to more utilitarian categories of vessels, and in both regions its development followed the same distinctive saw-tooth evolutionary trajectory.

This article discusses contact, social relationships, and social organization between sites at the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic in the Euphrates valley; all of which are of high importance for reconstructing and modelling social organization in consolidated agricultural villages. Our analysis has succeeded in identifying a complex range of overlapping levels and types of social interaction that occurred simultaneously and operated at different scales including the household, the community and inter-regional communities. This complex mixture of interacting spheres, together with the identification of cultural-social boundaries, enables us to understand and explain inter-site variation in material culture and mortuary practices. Moreover, they reflect the growing social complexity of large farming communities at the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic and the role played by settlement as the social unit through which these communities became more distinctive and self-consciously different.

This abridged version of the proposal developed for Friends of the Earth Middle East presents the design for an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians to share water in a physically realistic, ecologically sustainable and socially equitable manner. Existing arrangements are, at best, inadequate and, in some cases, counterproductive. The proposal relies upon ongoing monitoring and mediation to achieve equitable and sustainable use. It presents why and how an agreement on water can be reached now, before resolving the full range of issues required in a Final Status Agreement between Israel and Palestine.

Technological analyses of the lithic assemblage recovered from the excavations at Qubur el-Walaydah offer new insights into the nature of the specialized production system of sickle blades during the Late Bronze-Iron Age, and provide new data sets concerning the decline of chipped-stone technologies. Although the knapping technology used for the production of flint sickle segments was relatively simple, the spatial distribution of this system, the hafting procedures, and other technological considerations suggest that the specialists were no longer solely flint knappers, but had become sickle artisans. They produced the complete sickles that the farmers, who in turn lost their role in the manufacturing process, used. This specialized system can be characterized as a kind of vertical production integration. The organization of the production of flint sickles, moreover, may offer insights on the last stage of the stone-metal replacement process. If the intrinsic properties of iron and its availability must have played an important role, the flint-iron substitution might be facilitated by the fact that the production system was already characterized by a form of specialization where the users of these objects were no longer the producers. In this regard, the simultaneous fall of ad hoc flint tools represent another facet of the same phenomenon. If within the lithic production system the manufacture of sickles and ad hoc tools represent two distinct sub-systems, the large-scale adoption of iron implements suggests the emergence of a single specialized system producing different types of cutting tools, then used for different tasks. Thus, the end of chipped stone tools is related not only to the efficiency of iron implements, but also to a structural change in the relationship between tool consumers and producers.

Direct evidence for Palaeolithic sound-making instruments is relatively rare, with only a few examples recorded from Upper Palaeolithic contexts, particularly in European cultures. However, theoretical considerations suggest that such artefacts have existed elsewhere in the world. Nevertheless, evidence for sound production is tenuous in the prehistoric archaeological record of the Levant, the study of music and its evolution being sparsely explored. Here we report new evidence for Palaeolithic sound-making instruments from the Levant with the discovery of seven aerophones made of perforated bird bones in the Final Natufian site of Eynan-Mallaha, Northern Israel. Through technological, use-wear, taphonomic, experimental and acoustical analyses, we demonstrate that these objects were intentionally manufactured more than 12,000 years ago to produce a range of sounds similar to raptor calls and whose purposes could be at the crossroads of communication, attracting hunting prey and music-making. Although similar aerophones are documented in later archaeological cultures, such artificial bird sounds were yet to be reported from Palaeolithic context. Therefore, the discovery from Eynan-Mallaha contributes new evidence for a distinctive sound-making instrument in the Palaeolithic. Through a combined multidisciplinary approach, our study provides important new data regarding the antiquity and development of the variety of sound-making instruments in the Palaeolithic at large and particularly at the dawn of the Neolithic in the Levant.

Many people think of transboundary water in terms of national security. However, water is not, nor is it likely to become, a cause of war. Rather, the need is for water security, which implies that water management must balance the goals of efficiency, equity, sustainability and implementability. This article suggests how a joint management structure for fresh water can be designed to promote ongoing resolution of issues, and do so in a way that de-nationalizes and de-securitizes transboundary water. Though designed with the Israeli–Palestinian case in mind, the approach is applicable wherever water divides rather than unites states or peoples.

Decorating the living space, objects, body and clothes with colour is a widespread human practice. While the habitual use of red mineral pigments (such as iron-oxide, e.g., ochre) by anatomically modern humans started in Africa about 140,000 years ago, the earliest documentation of the use of organic plant or animal-based red pigments is known from only 6,000 years ago. Here, we report the oldest reliable evidence of organic red pigment use 15,000 years ago by the first sedentary hunter-gatherers in the Levant. SEM-EDS and Raman Spectroscopy analyses of 10 red-stained shell beads enabled us to detect and describe the use of a colourant made of Rubiaceae plants roots (Rubia spp., Asperula spp., Gallium spp.) to colour personal adornments from the Early Natufian of Kebara cave, Mount Carmel, Israel. This adds a previously unknown behavioural aspect of Natufian societies, namely a well-established tradition of non-dietary plant processing at the beginning of the sedentary lifestyle. Through a combined multidisciplinary approach, our study broadens the perspectives on the ornamental practices and the chaînes opératoires of pigmenting materials during a crucial period in human history.

International audience

Résumé Appuyé sur une lecture du texte d’intervention de Norbert Elias « Sociologie de l’antisémitisme allemand », paru en 1929 dans une revue israélite communautaire, cet article se propose de reconsidérer la trajectoire intellectuelle du sociologue. Il soutient que dans ce texte aux allures circonstancielles Elias thématise le choix qu’il fait en faveur de la sociologie. Cette option vient se substituer à et recouvrir son engagement sioniste dans le mouvement de jeunesse Blau-Weiss, comme le laisse entendre, malgré son ambiguïté, la phrase conclusive de son texte où il présente aux juifs d’Allemagne une alternative: l’émigration collective vers la Palestine ou la lucidité tirée du diagnostic sociologique de la situation. L’article situe d’abord ce texte d’intervention dans la palette des analyses de l’antisémitisme en Allemagne durant les années 1920, en particulier celles de Franz Oppenheimer, dans son rapport au sionisme. Il le situe ensuite dans ce courant de la sociologie mené par Karl Mannheim, dont Elias sera l’assistant à Francfort, dans son contraste avec la perspective développée à la même époque par l’École de Francfort. Enfin, il montre que le geste de distanciation sociologique opéré par Elias viendra imperceptiblement se substituer à la distanciation politique qui avait le sionisme pour pivot, un geste scientifique qui supposait d’effacer définitivement de sa mémoire l’option politique sioniste en faveur de laquelle il avait pourtant longtemps milité.

En tant que crime généalogique (Legendre, 1990. 1999), le génocide constitue un événement symbolicide majeur (Guyotat, 1985, 1995, 2005a). C’est en ce qu’il vise à éradiquer l’altérité-même des victimes qu’il peut être considéré comme étant de nature fanatique (Chouvier, 2017). L’extermination consiste par ailleurs en une profonde mise à mal du contrat narcissique primaire, secondaire et originaire (Aulagnier, 1975 ; Kaës, 2009) ce qui entraîne une catastrophe de la filiation (Waintrater, 2002) mais peut-être aussi de l’affiliation au groupe et d’identification à l’espèce humaine. Comment les victimes du crime généalogique auquel auront conduit les constructions idéologiques radicales prônées par les Nazis s’inscrivent-ils fantasmatiquement – ou non – dans leur lignée généalogique ? Nous formulons l’hypothèse que chez les survivants d’un tel crime de masse, la représentation fantasmatique de la généalogie présente des traces traumatiques relatives à la représentation de la capacité d’engendrer. L’originalité de nos travaux consiste à explorer cette hypothèse grâce à une médiation projective : la libre réalisation de l’arbre généalogique (Veuillet, 2003). Une étude de cas permet d’illustrer que les traces traumatiques concernent la fantasmatique originaire du sujet et qu’elles révèlent inconsciemment de certaines impasses identificatoires en lien avec les processus de subjectivation en jeu dans le triple contrat narcissique en question.

Combe-Cullier (Lacave, Lot) est un site connu depuis le début du XXe siècle, grâce aux sondages des abbés Héreil et Callé. Il a été popularisé suite aux fouilles des niveaux magdaléniens de la grotte, menées par A. Viré entre 1906 et 1935. Le talus est ensuite fouillé, par J.-F. Flies, à la fin des années 1960 et a livré plusieurs niveaux récemment datés du Magdalénien inférieur, moyen et supérieur. Cette collection constitue un riche ensemble archéologique : industries lithiques et osseuses, faune, matières colorantes, parure et art mobilier.Dans le cadre d’une révision collective du gisement, nous nous sommes intéressés à la caractérisation des niveaux du Magdalénien moyen ancien (ou MMA), datés entre 19 500 et 18 500 cal. BP, ayant notamment livré des lamelles scalènes. À partir des analyses pétroarchéologiques, techno-économiques et techno-typologiques du matériel en silex, nous proposons de caractériser certains comportements et choix mis en œuvre par les chasseurs-collecteurs ayant occupé Combe-Cullier au cours du MMA.Cette étude a permis de mettre en évidence, à Combe-Cullier, une diversité dans le spectre de matières premières siliceuses. L’approvisionnement se fait essentiellement à l’échelle locale et est centré sur des silex sénoniens du Périgord et tertiaires du bassin d’Aurillac (disponibles dans les alluvions de la Dordogne). Quelques pièces témoignent également de circulations des matières premières depuis la Chalosse, la Charente-Maritime (Saintonge) et le sud du Bassin parisien. Nous avons donc mis en évidence une segmentation, différentielle dans l’espace et le temps, des chaînes opératoires de productions lamino-lamellaires.Le débitage laminaire, réalisé sur place ou documenté par des lames importées, indique un schéma unipolaire mené au percuteur tendre organique et préférentiellement orienté sur l’exploitation de surfaces larges selon des séquences frontales juxtaposées. Il fournit des supports pour l’outillage à vocation domestique. Le débitage lamellaire est destiné à la fabrication des armatures de chasse, dont les gabarits et la composition typologique varient entre les différents niveaux, avec une recherche notable d’armatures tronquées. Enfin la fabrication des lamelles scalènes témoigne d’une normalisation avec la recherche d’un morphotype particulier, préférentiellement latéralisé.

Cet article traite de l’abandon des pratiques religieuses chez des jeunes sionistes religieux modernes qui se définissent comme « anciens religieux » ( datlashim ). Il aborde le thème des identités bricolées et celui des rites de passage qui accompagnent leurs évolutions. En conclusion, est évoquée la rencontre avec des laïcs qui aspirent à une rejudaïsation intellectuelle dans des établissements d’études talmudiques, souvent fondés ou encadrés par les datlashim .

This paper proposes to revisit the intellectual trajectory of Norbert Elias on the basis of an article published by the sociologist in a local Jewish newspaper in 1929 and entitled “On the Sociology of German Anti-Semitism.” It argues that in this seemingly circumstantial text, Elias asserts his decision to favor sociology, which had come to replace and envelop his engagement in the Zionist youth movement Blau-Weiss. This is evident in the article's somewhat ambiguous final sentence, where Elias presents German Jews with an alternative: collective emigration to Palestine or a lucid vision drawn from a sociological diagnosis of the situation. The paper begins by situating Elias's text within the range of analyses of anti-Semitism in 1920s Germany, comparing its approach to Zionism with that of Franz Oppenheimer. It then contextualizes its relationship to the sociology of Karl Mannheim: Elias was Mannheim's assistant in Frankfurt and his approach contrasted with the perspective developed in the same time and place by the Frankfurt school. Finally, the paper shows that Elias's sociological distantiation would imperceptibly take the place of the political distantiation that had centered on Zionism—a scientific movement that implied erasing from his memory the political Zionism he had long supported. A new French translation of Elias's 1929 text, also by Danny Trom, is included as an appendix.

Le tourisme des racines, qui s’est tout particulièrement développé cette dernière décennie, possède une fonction de quête identitaire liée à la nostalgie des lieux de l’enfance. Cet article évoque des expériences de retour à Czernowitz, capitale de la Bucovine du Nord, aujourd’hui Chernivtsi en Ukraine, et tente de montrer de quel espace et de quel temps les originaires parlent lorsqu’ils évoquent la ville des racines. Ces questions sont abordées à partir de deux types de pratiques : la première, « désincarnée », celle du cyberespace, est appréhendée à travers une listserv , la Czernowitz-L, qui regroupe des originaires de Czernowitz et leurs descendants; la seconde, « incarnée », concerne certaines expériences de retour à Chernivtsi, cette fois. Dans les deux cas, sont mis en lumière les multiples paradoxes qui accompagnent ces échanges et ces pèlerinages. Enfin, est esquissée la question de l’évolution de la nostalgie selon la place des acteurs dans la succession des générations.

Abstract Recent research on the Lower Paleolithic of the Levant has re-evaluated technical trends defined for the Acheulean techno-complex during the 1970s, trends built upon typological analysis of handaxe assemblages. To this end, new methods are being applied to old and new collections in order to assess handaxe morphological and technological variation over time, opening a discussion about the technical skills of Acheulean knappers, also referred to as “craftmanship” (hereafter referred to as “craft”). In this context, morphometric studies conducted at the Late Acheulean site of Jaljulia have highlighted the crudeness and high morphological variability of the bifacial assemblage, challenging the 1970s idea of handaxe increasing refinement over time. Interestingly, the authors do not attribute this variability to a lack of knapping skill—as irregular and non-standardized productions are traditionally interpreted—but to an expedient chaîne opératoire of tool production. Produced predominantly in brecciated flint, collected and modified on the spot, the sample studied is interpreted by the authors as tools mostly adapted for bone-crushing purposes. This paper aims to offer a new perspective on this assemblage by conducting a critical technological analysis of the handaxes from the oldest locality on-site, Area D, taking into account raw material constraints as well as the site’s function as a handaxe production workshop, among other activities conducted at this Paleolithic landscape. Our results suggest the presence of pieces discarded during the production process, which contributes to the increased morphological variability observed in the assemblage. Our analysis discusses the expedient character of Jaljulia’s handaxe reduction sequence and points to the production of three distinct techno-types, potentially associated to a wider variety of tasks. To conclude, we discuss our results in the context of the Late Acheulean of the Levant, within the broader framework of technological trends and associated technical skills in the late Acheulean.

À partir d’une recherche sur les changements dans les diverses communautés religieuses appartenant à la majorité juive d’Israël, je me suis intéressée aux personnes qui abandonnent l’ultra-orthodoxie, les « sortants vers la question », en étant bénévole au sein d’une association d’aide aux sortants, à Jérusalem. Après une présentation succincte du secteur religieux orthodoxe et ultra-orthodoxe en Israël, l’article présente les tensions et les évolutions qui traversent le monde ultra-orthodoxe et percent des failles dans son système d’enfermement. Le texte se poursuit avec l’analyse de la sortie de l’ultra-orthodoxie, qui s’accompagne toujours d’épreuves et d’expériences douloureuses. D’après les statistiques, 1 300 ultra-orthodoxes quitteraient leur milieu chaque année. Sur ce nombre, 20 % environ se font aider par des associations, les 80 % restants se fondent dans la société environnante et deviennent difficilement repérables. Cette « majorité invisible » relève de trois catégories principales : les dissidents de l’ultra-orthodoxie séfarade, les deuxièmes générations de ceux qui étaient « retournés à la religion », enfin les familles nucléaires, parents et enfants. L’article s’intéressera tout particulièrement à la troisième de ces catégories : les familles entières confrontées à des défis particuliers, qui les obligent bien souvent à mener une double vie.