Joël Noret
I am an anthropologist interested in the complexities of African social change. In my PhD (2002-2006), I have researched how funerals unfolded in southern Benin, across social divisions and religious identities, using funerary events as a key entry point to examine wider social dynamics. Later on, other research interests have been the memories of slavery on the West African Coast, as well as the transnationalization of Pentecostalism. More recently, I have started investigating social inequalities in education in southern Benin, using survey research to explore the intersection of different variables in the making of the unequal school careers of secondary school students. Apart from southern Benin, I have also had research experiences in Togo, Nigeria, and DRC. My publications include Deuil et funérailles dans le Bénin meridional: enterrer à tout prix (2010), Mort et dynamiques sociales au Katanga (co-authored with Pierre Petit, 2011), Funerals in Africa: Explorations of a Social Phenomenon (coedited with Michael Jindra, 2011), as well as articles in journals such as African Studies, Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines, Journal of African Economies, Politique Africaine, and others. I am now associate professor of anthropology at the Université libre de Bruxelles, and currently president of the department of social sciences.
Phone: +32 (0)2 650 34 22
Address: Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains
Institut de Sociologie de l'ULB - CP 124
44 Avenue Jeanne
B-1050 Bruxelles
Belgium
Phone: +32 (0)2 650 34 22
Address: Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains
Institut de Sociologie de l'ULB - CP 124
44 Avenue Jeanne
B-1050 Bruxelles
Belgium
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Dans les dernières années, les plans de réaménagement du littoral portés par le président Patrice Talon (en poste depuis 2016) ont globalement fait peu de cas des gens de peu ayant construit là leur existence. Arguant d’une nécessaire planification urbaine pour déloger parfois des quartiers entiers, cette politique du mépris menée au nom du développement fragilise en fait des fractions parmi les plus vulnérables de la population urbaine.
Books by Joël Noret
REVIEWS
“This is a very important and timely contribution to the study of mobilities and immobilities in Africa. The volume advances our understanding of social positionalities as these intertwine and mediate with wider political and moral economies in contemporary Africa.” • Mattia Fumanti, University of St Andrews
“Addresses thorny, contemporary realities and draws on a really thought-provoking theoretical palette in opening up debate. Moving beyond social inequality and linear ideas of social mobility is a sort of manifesto that others will take up.” • David Pratten, University of Oxford
Michael Jindra is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and a visiting research scholar in the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. He has published in journals such as Africa, Sociology of Religion, Anthropological Forum, and Society and has also contributed chapters to a number of books. His current research focuses on the connection between lifestyle diversity, culture, and inequality in the US.
Joël Noret is Assistant Professor of anthropology at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. He has been conducting fieldwork in southern Benin since the beginning of the 2000s. His publications include the co-edited special issue of Gradhiva, Mémoire de l'esclavage au Bénin (with Gaetano Ciarcia, 2008), his monograph, Deuil et funérailles dans le Bénin méridional. Enterrer à tout prix (Brussels, 2010), and Mort et dynamiques sociales au Katanga (with Pierre Petit, Tervuren-Paris, 2011).
“This collection is of great benefit to scholars and students across a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, development studies, economics, history, religious studies.”
Rebekah Lee, Goldsmiths, University of London
"Funerals in Africa is an excellent volume. Based on outstanding original research the collection shows how social and economic changes in Africa are illuminated through the analysis of burials, mortuary rites, mourning and remembrance. In this collection encounters with world religions emerge as the key theme. Death and burial are therefore employed to illuminate classic debates on conversion, reformism and local-global religious tensions. Highly recommended for anthropologists and historians and a major contribution to African studies."
David Pratten, Director, African Studies Centre, Oxford University
Ensuite, parallèlement à cet intérêt pour le changement social tel qu’il se donne à voir au prisme des funérailles, cet ouvrage revient sur la vieille question anthropologique de l’articulation entre deuil psychique et funérailles, en proposant de repenser celle-ci principalement à partir de la question du don, et de la façon dont faire le deuil implique bien souvent de donner de soi. Ainsi, ce livre cherche également à contribuer à une anthropologie du deuil à une échelle plus individuelle, en s’intéressant aux contextes, rituels comme non rituels, dans lesquels celui-ci prend place, aux dispositions et aux habitudes de pensée qui l’informent et façonnent socialement l’expérience de la perte.
Disponible sur amazon.fr et amazon.co.uk
Papers by Joël Noret
Against this backdrop, the notion of social im/mobilities refers to the multifaceted dynamics of social structure in Africa today, and to the complex and sometimes paradoxical social trajectories they frame. These dynamics feature both social possibilities and social reproduction, social opportunities and social obstructions, in societies that are themselves subjected to rapid change – that is, in which the forces at play in the making of social positions are also in motion. Therefore, the idea of social im/mobilities emphasizes the limits, uncertainties and complexities of current social mobilities, since social trajectories can be marked by change without significant alterations of ‘life chances’, to refer once again to Weber. Considering a variety of situations, the chapters in this volume investigate the complex intersection of important social qualities – including levels of wealth and education, gender, autochthony or ethnicity – in the production and the distribution of social positions, and the correlative making of social divisions. Advocating a multifaceted view of African societies, they investigate the nature of the social powers that constitute the texture of societies, and that individuals confront or mobilize in the course of their existences.
Dans les dernières années, les plans de réaménagement du littoral portés par le président Patrice Talon (en poste depuis 2016) ont globalement fait peu de cas des gens de peu ayant construit là leur existence. Arguant d’une nécessaire planification urbaine pour déloger parfois des quartiers entiers, cette politique du mépris menée au nom du développement fragilise en fait des fractions parmi les plus vulnérables de la population urbaine.
REVIEWS
“This is a very important and timely contribution to the study of mobilities and immobilities in Africa. The volume advances our understanding of social positionalities as these intertwine and mediate with wider political and moral economies in contemporary Africa.” • Mattia Fumanti, University of St Andrews
“Addresses thorny, contemporary realities and draws on a really thought-provoking theoretical palette in opening up debate. Moving beyond social inequality and linear ideas of social mobility is a sort of manifesto that others will take up.” • David Pratten, University of Oxford
Michael Jindra is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and a visiting research scholar in the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. He has published in journals such as Africa, Sociology of Religion, Anthropological Forum, and Society and has also contributed chapters to a number of books. His current research focuses on the connection between lifestyle diversity, culture, and inequality in the US.
Joël Noret is Assistant Professor of anthropology at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. He has been conducting fieldwork in southern Benin since the beginning of the 2000s. His publications include the co-edited special issue of Gradhiva, Mémoire de l'esclavage au Bénin (with Gaetano Ciarcia, 2008), his monograph, Deuil et funérailles dans le Bénin méridional. Enterrer à tout prix (Brussels, 2010), and Mort et dynamiques sociales au Katanga (with Pierre Petit, Tervuren-Paris, 2011).
“This collection is of great benefit to scholars and students across a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, development studies, economics, history, religious studies.”
Rebekah Lee, Goldsmiths, University of London
"Funerals in Africa is an excellent volume. Based on outstanding original research the collection shows how social and economic changes in Africa are illuminated through the analysis of burials, mortuary rites, mourning and remembrance. In this collection encounters with world religions emerge as the key theme. Death and burial are therefore employed to illuminate classic debates on conversion, reformism and local-global religious tensions. Highly recommended for anthropologists and historians and a major contribution to African studies."
David Pratten, Director, African Studies Centre, Oxford University
Ensuite, parallèlement à cet intérêt pour le changement social tel qu’il se donne à voir au prisme des funérailles, cet ouvrage revient sur la vieille question anthropologique de l’articulation entre deuil psychique et funérailles, en proposant de repenser celle-ci principalement à partir de la question du don, et de la façon dont faire le deuil implique bien souvent de donner de soi. Ainsi, ce livre cherche également à contribuer à une anthropologie du deuil à une échelle plus individuelle, en s’intéressant aux contextes, rituels comme non rituels, dans lesquels celui-ci prend place, aux dispositions et aux habitudes de pensée qui l’informent et façonnent socialement l’expérience de la perte.
Disponible sur amazon.fr et amazon.co.uk
Against this backdrop, the notion of social im/mobilities refers to the multifaceted dynamics of social structure in Africa today, and to the complex and sometimes paradoxical social trajectories they frame. These dynamics feature both social possibilities and social reproduction, social opportunities and social obstructions, in societies that are themselves subjected to rapid change – that is, in which the forces at play in the making of social positions are also in motion. Therefore, the idea of social im/mobilities emphasizes the limits, uncertainties and complexities of current social mobilities, since social trajectories can be marked by change without significant alterations of ‘life chances’, to refer once again to Weber. Considering a variety of situations, the chapters in this volume investigate the complex intersection of important social qualities – including levels of wealth and education, gender, autochthony or ethnicity – in the production and the distribution of social positions, and the correlative making of social divisions. Advocating a multifaceted view of African societies, they investigate the nature of the social powers that constitute the texture of societies, and that individuals confront or mobilize in the course of their existences.
Plus spécifiquement, dans la sociologie historique du cadavre que je propose dans les pages qui suivent, je partirai de deux ressorts de la transformation de l’apprêt des corps, qui me sont apparus comme majeurs, au cours de mes enquêtes sur les funérailles dans le Bénin méridional. Ainsi, j’évoquerai, dans un premier temps, les effets du changement religieux sur le traitement des cadavres, dont une proportion croissante échappe désormais aux mains des spécialistes « traditionnels » de la gestion des corps. Dans un deuxième temps, je montrerai la place occupée dorénavant par les morgues dans la prise en charge de la mort et les déplacements significatifs que cette innovation technologique a contribué à diffuser dans la chaîne opératoire du cadavre.
power accumulation, and vodun worshippers have been appropriating the religious forces of neighbouring peoples. This is a well documented and widespread process in this part of Africa. Against this backdrop, this short text explores how understanding today’s vodun tradition is inseparable from understanding the broader historical dynamics that inform African modernity, and how much the authenticity and traditionality of these cults reside, paradoxically, in their malleability and creativity –and not in an alleged fi xed or timeless character, as some avidly held, nostalgic views of authenticity so stubbornly claim.