16-2024, tome 121, 4, p 629-643 - Torterat G. (2024) - Le développement de la paléopalynologie en France à partir des années 1950, au prisme de la trajectoire d’Arlette Leroi-Gourhan : une analyse anthropologique sous l’angle du genre

Le développement de la paléopalynologie en France

à partir des années 1950, au prisme de la trajectoire d'Arlette Leroi-Gourhan

Une analyse anthropologique sous l'angle du genre

Gwendoline Torterat

Résumé : A partir de la seconde moitié du xxe siècle, l'archéologie préhistorique française s'inscrit dans un contexte politique de réforme structurelle des instances représentatives de la recherche et de l'enseignement scientifique. La période de l'après-guerre est ainsi favorable à son développement général, y compris au niveau de ses méthodes de fouille et d'analyse. Cet article s'interroge sur la place qu'ont occupée les femmes et le rôle qu'elles ont joué dans ce processus de transformation à la fois institutionnel et scientifique. En tant qu'épouse de l'un des préhistoriens les plus influents de son époque, il est question de montrer comment Arlette Leroi-Gourhan a joué un rôle crucial dans le développement de la paléopalynologie. Ce cas auquel ni la littérature en archéologie, ni en sciences humaines et sociales ne s'est pas encore consacré jusque-là, est tout aussi exemplaire qu'inédit. Cette scientifique a construit sa carrière en marge de modes de gouvernance genrés tout en centralisant de manière innovante les apports techniques et analytiques des approches environnementales.

Mots-clés : paléopalynologie, archéologie environnementale, épistémologie de l'archéologie, genre, travail, histoire de l'archéologie préhistorique.

Abstract: From the second half of the 20th century onwards, French prehistoric archaeology was part of a political context of structural reform of the bodies representing scientific research and teaching. The post-war period was thus favourable to its general development, including in terms of excavation and analysis methods. This article looks at the place occupied by women and the role they played in France in this process of institutional and scientific transformation. The scientific career of French prehistorian Arlette Leroi-Gourhan (1913-2005) is the focus of this study. We will take stock of the consequences of the general context of centralization of research institutions on women's working conditions. Indeed, it was not until the years following the creation of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in 1939 that the backstage areas of research institutions became more feminized. Nevertheless, women were mainly employed as secretaries, typists or, more rarely, as laboratory secretaries. During this period of economic depression, unemployment particularly affected married women scientists. Some joined their husbands' laboratories, either as assistants or collaborators, or more rarely as research associates, with a position that enabled them to continue their own research. Under the guise of a professional opportunity, marriage in fact reproduced, and consequently amplified, gender inequalities similar to those already in place in the private and public spheres.

The general lack of recognition of women's contributions to science is now a phenomenon that the history of science has amply documented. The multiple choices and alliance strategies to which women have turned during their careers remain to be analyzed. This is a specific and complex field of analysis that offers great promise. It is from this angle that this article intends to engage. It follows in the footsteps of historiographical works that highlight the role of women in the scientific development of archaeology. Prehistorians such as Madeleine Colani (1866-1943) and Annette Laming-Emperaire (1917-1977), both pioneers in their field, have remained as famous as their husbands, whom they followed in their field abroad. Historiography also provides numerous examples of women scientists who were recognized by their peers and who chose to maintain their independence by remaining volunteers or without institutional affiliation. This contribution follows this line, but also shows how Arlette Leroi-Gourhan succeeded in blending in with the scientific interests of her husband, André Leroi-Gourhan (1911-1986), and indirectly integrating the institutions to which he held the keys. This great figure of archaeology made a major contribution to the restructuring of the organization of French archaeological research and higher education. He also held a number of key positions of responsibility throughout his career. Arlette Leroi-Gourhan's motivation was to establish pollen analysis as a fully-fledged scientific field for archaeology (paleopalynology). The unprecedented nature of her career will be discussed, firstly from the point of view of her constant mobility between the private and public spheres, and secondly in terms of the trio she formed with her husband and research assistant, Michel Girard. Starting in the 1950s, this young chemist began working with her on a piecework basis, analyzing various pollens. He soon obtained a permanent position as a palynologist.

   The aim of this study is to understand how Arlette Leroi-Gourhan managed to introduce a range of epistemological and methodological innovations while remaining on the bangs of her institution. Indeed, gender norms forced her to create her own space within a field that men had largely abandoned, a space that would later become a fully-recognized field of scientific research integrated into professional practices. The story of Arlette Leroi-Gourhan's career and her scientific work will be told through the succession of spaces in which she worked, from her kitchen laboratory to the one in which she later worked in the basement of the musée de l'Homme in Paris. It will also describe the place of two men in particular, her husband and her research assistant, who played an important role in her life and career. Through the history of their relationships, we'll see how the boundaries of the classic image of the gendered male/scientist and female/assistant duo on which social science studies have often built their analyses are blurred.

   This article is based on original sources that correspond to a new oral archive consisting of around a hundred filmed interviews, part of which is online (Mémoires en partage series on Canal U, online). The information in this article was first collected in 2016 as part of my collaboration on the 2ARC project, ARChives de fouilles ARCy-sur-Cure (funded by Labex Les Passés dans le Présent, COMUE Paris-Lumière, State aid managed by ANR-11-LABX-0026-01, coordinators: Nejma Goutas, Ludovic Mevel and Pierre Bodu of UMR 8068). A second research period between 2019 and 2021 enabled me to continue data collection, as part of the ANTHROP'ARC project (funded by the DIM Matériaux Anciens et Patrimoniaux, Île-de-France, coordinators: Nejma Goutas of UMR 8068 and Baptiste Buob of UMR 7186). The interviews on which this article is based were conducted during these two research phases.

Keywords: paleopalynologic, environmental archaeology, epistemology of archaeology, gender, work, history of prehistoric archaeology.