NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Passer outre la barrière culturelle : comment les Britanniques se renseignent sur les populations du Canada et de l’Inde, 1757-1774

This study compares methods of information gathering in two territories that became part of the British Empire after the Seven Years’ War. We bring these two extremely different regions into the same frame by asking: how did the British gather information about the populations of Canada and Bengal? Our study is part of several historiographical currents that offer a rereading of the history of Great Britain and its colonies, which is the subject of our first chapter. In the next chapter, we explore the post-conquest era in Canada. After the conquest of this territory (1759-1760), British authorities faced the task of administering the Canadian population. At first, they tried to implement a new governmental regime deemed suitable for the Canadian context. However, since the majority of the population they governed was of different religious denomination (Catholics) and of French origin, they had to modify the regime ten years later. In the third chapter, we look at the British presence in Bengal after the battle of Plassey in 1757. The British, through the East India Company, acquired a certain influence over local authorities, which allowed them to govern indirectly via the Mogul Empire’s governors, the nabobs. Nevertheless, cultural differences were much more significant than with the Canadian population of European origin: the Mogul Empire was a Muslim polity, with a Persian administration, and much of the population was Hindu. From our reading of the official correspondence, between the colonial administrators and the metropolitan government in the first case, and between the agents of the company and its directors in the second, we affirm that in both situations the British tried to gather more information. However, important institutional and cultural differences distinguish the types of information sought as well as the approaches to collecting information. The results of our research ultimately converge on one point: the search for information passed through a whole range of local intermediaries.   In the last chapter, after having explored the “information order” implemented or adapted by the British in each colonial context, the study considers how colonial information was received and shaped by the metropolitan authorities. To this end, the efforts of officials and parliamentarians to learn about colonial conditions during the drafting of two laws, the Quebec Act (1774) and the Regulating Act (1773) are highlighted through a reading of the Parliamentary debates. Here also, many differences are visible. To become informed about Canada, British authorities relied heavily on the help of the colonial administrators who stayed in Canada after the regime change. However, in the Indian case, they depended mostly on documentary sources, namely the books of the EIC.

Keyphrases: Canada, British empire, India, Bengal, Information, Colonial intelligence, flow of information, colonialism
Le modèle de la vierge consacrée au VIe siècle : l’exemple du De consolatoria castitatis laude d’Avit de Vienne

In the 6th century, in the kingdom of the Burgundians, Avitus of Vienne composes a letter for his sister, the nun Fuscina. This consoling and eulogistic artwork is called De consolatoria castitatis laude. This text generates in us an understanding of the particular context of the virgo in the Christian society of Late Antiquity. Regarding the text, the purpose of the book is to show to the monacha that the virginal choice represents a way of escape and freedom, a reality that the spouse is unaware of. The duties of marriage, the dangers of motherhood, the troubles of the century, the widowhood and the mourning are all unknown to the virgin because she excludes herself to worldly obligations. The use of the Bible and several patristic references shape the legacy of religious mentalities which inspires Avitus in making an oriented speech on the virgo’s socio-religious distinctness.

Keyphrases: Perfection chrétienne, Bible, Augustin, History of religious mentalities, Women’s history, Virginity, Chastity, Asceticism, Female monasticism, Christian perfection, Hagiography, Patristic ideologies, Tertullian, Ambrose of Milan, Jerome, Augustine, Avitus of Vienne
Enjeux, symboliques et pratiques du don animalier au XIIIe siècle : perspectives conceptuelle, zoologique et historique
Faucons, fauves, ours blancs et éléphants

The main purpose of this text is to study the practices, the issues and the modalities of the animal diplomatic gift in the 13th century, especially during the reign of Frederick II, Henry III and Louis IX. The analysis is based on the presentation of the sociological and anthropological conceptualizations of the gift, particularly those of Marcel Mauss. They are used to understand the peculiarities of the animal diplomatic gift in the 13th century. Then, a research on animal descriptions of medieval bestiaries and encyclopedias is conducted to show the symbolic power and the physical and behavioral characteristics of the offered wildlife. Finally, several modalities of the donation are developed, such as the selection criteria and the wildlife preferences of the kings, the context and rules of the elaboration of a present and the movement of given animals. In addition, it is shown how the beasts and birds had a real use for the kings. Indeed, they staged their animals in order to appropriate their symbolism and show off their prestige and their greatness, at events or in the menageries.

Keyphrases: Marcel Mauss, Prestige, Gifts, Diplomacy, Animals, Menagerie, Bestiary, Encyclopedia, Exoticism, Kings, Symbolism
L'attitude du Front populaire français face à la collaboration avec l'Union soviétique, 1936-1937

The objective of this research is to measure the impact of the Spanish Civil War on the attitude of the French Popular Front about the collaboration with Soviet Union from 1936 to 1937. It takes shape in a political and journalistic opinion study based on a survey of three French daily newspapers attached to the Popular Front during the 1930s, namely L’Humanité, Le Populaire and L’Œuvre. The analysis is articulated through the events of 1936 to 1937 such as the ratification of the Franco-Soviet mutual assistance pact, the election of the Popular Front and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The impact of the conflict in Spain is in fact measured in the intensification of the political polarization in France which influence the attitude of de Popular Front about the collaboration with Soviet Union. Despite the advent of a new Popular Front government, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War elevated the political polarization between the left and the right in France, which started in 1934, at its peak. Without a strong coalition between the left and the center right, collective security led by the USSR could not succeed. While some journalists are tempted by the appeasement policy, others develop a more clear-sighted and realistic vision of the threat posed by Nazi Germany and the importance of a close Franco-Soviet relationship.

Keyphrases: France, Spanish Civil War, Popular Front, France, USSR, public opinion, newspaper
Montréal-Nord, Montréal-Noir : les discours et les récits de la stigmatisation territoriale

Territorial stigmatization is a concept that argues that certain groups of people are discredited, devalued and tainted by the reputation of their real or perceived place of residence. This research seeks to illustrate the territorial stigmatization of Montréal- Nord—a borough in the city of Montréal that is affected by poverty issues and where a large part of the population is of immigrant origin. Affected by an unenviable reputation in Quebec’s spatial imagination, Montréal-Nord is generally perceived as the “Montréal Bronx”: a space occupies by street gangs and associated with a landlocked area of poor urban quality. These representations, emphasizing the dangerous and criminal nature of this borough, were reinforced following the murder of Fredy Villanueva by a police officer in 2008 in a Montréal-Nord park and the urban revolts that followed. However, in which production context the media stories about Montréal-Nord are being made? And above all, what actions are proposed by public institutions, community organizations and certain citizen collectives in order to reverse an image deemed negative and to stop the impoverishment of the borough?  Thanks to a database of articles published on the borough of Montréal-Nord by eight Montréal print media newspapers between 2006 and 2016, it is possible to illustrate processes that focus attention on the dangerous nature of the neighbourhood. In addition, 25 semi-directed interviews with various actors from Montréal-Nord highlights the influence that media stories have on the production of urban space. The emergence of collectives performing a new type of citizenship will also be documented in order to illustrate a form of recuperation of the discourse about Montréal-Nord. At the intersection of issues of race, representation and reparations, this research aims to highlight the segregating mechanisms at work within Montréal’s urban and media space.

Keyphrases: Montréal-Nord, Controverse spatiale, Territorial Stigmatization, Montreal-North, Media, Power relations, Representation, Racism, Marginalization, Spatial controversy, Production of space
L’accaparement du contrôle dans les propriétés collectives colombiennes : le cas de Wacoyo

Contrary to David Harvey’s hypothesis (1973), who considers that the principle of redistribution gradually replaces reciprocity before leading to the market economy, we believe that it is in the interest of the dominant economy to keep alive the underlying moral economy in order to facilitate the residual control grabbing of the resguardos, and thus to guarantee the expansion of the capital in the indigenous territories. If patronage is the form of socio-political organization necessary for the integration of indigenous populations into the market, it is the pre-capitalist moral economies which contribute to the expansion of the capitalist system. Thus, the indigenous moral economy becomes an instrument of domination which operates against this same indigenous population. Its operation remains invisible if we continue to assess indigenous rights in the context of non-indigenous law, and if we analyse the problem in the context of scientific languages hardly based on the thinking of the populations concerned. Our research tackles the question of the control grabbing from a normative point of view, by examining the issues surrounding the agreement that allowed the private sector to exploit a land of Wacoyo, a collective property located within the last Colombian agricultural frontier.

Keyphrases: Control grabbing, Residual control, Moral economy, Wacoyo
La révolution décongelée : gouvernance, leadership et autodétermination en contexte colonial au Nunavik

For nearly 50 years now, the Nunavik Inuit wish to insure their development with a form of self-government that can better reflect their identity and meet their needs. Indigenous self-government has been recognized as a right by the United Nations Organization since 2007, and although Canada and Quebec preach for the establishment of a Nation to Nation relationship with Indigenous People, we have no choice but to note the numerous challenges faced by the Nunavimmiut—the people from Nunavik—on the road to self-governance. The flexibility of the latter has been legally framed by the Bay-James and Northern Quebec Agreement, signed in 1975.   The Nunavik Inuit, now part of the "modern society", traditionally relied on standards in which the power relationships were not only ensuring their survival, but were also maintaining the harmony, the welfare and the transfer of knowledge from one generation to another. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the ways in which modernity, fueled by settler colonialism and its power relationships, are redefining these social structures. These transformations are a dynamic process and are redefining the identity of the Nunavik Inuit, as well as their approach to self-governance.

Keyphrases: Leadership, Nunavik Inuit, Self determination, Settler colonialism, Modernity, Leadership, Governance
Modélisation spatiale des stocks en carbone, azote et phosphore des tourbières laurentiennes

Peatlands have accumulated important amounts of organic matter since the beginning of the Holocene. This organic matter accumulation is described as peat, that globally stores large amounts of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). Regional estimations of C and nutrients stocks have seldom been quantified. Moreover, peat depth variability and biophysical and physical variables are often not included in actual peat C, N, and P pool size estimations. The goal of this thesis is to provide an estimation of peat C, N, and P pool sizes for a regional county of southern Quebec by modeling peat depth variations and by using biophysical and physical variables to discriminated peat C, N, and P storage among peatland types. Manual peat depth probing showed significant differences in peat depth among peatland types. Mean peat depth of bogs was 4.4 m, while fens and forested peatlands mean peat depths were of 2.3 and 2.0 m, respectively. Modeling of peat accumulation basin by spatial interpolation took these peat depth variations into account, among peatland types. The relationship between peatland area and peat C stocks was statistically different between bogs and fens, and bogs and forested peatlands.  Peat N and P content among peatland types were not discriminated by the biophysical and physical variables considered in this study. Peat C, N, and P stocks were extrapolated within the study region using peatland area and estimated at 5.65 Tg C, 230.5 Gg N et 21.8 Gg P. This study has shown that peat accumulation basin heterogeneity and peatland geometric shape influenced peat C, N, and P stocks at the regional scale.

Keyphrases: Extrapolation, Peatlands, Stocks, Peat bathymetry, Upscaling, Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus
L’insécurité alimentaire à Montréal-Nord : un enjeu de démocratie alimentaire?

Although Montreal is located in an advanced capitalist country, certain sectors of the metropolis such as Montreal North are more vulnerable in terms of food access than other Montreal boroughs. Characterized by a large immigrant population, a high unemployment rate and a high proportion of citizens living on low income, this district is distinguished by the fact that one in three households is affected by food insecurity. Studies on the subject generally attempt to identify the most affected areas within the borough by means of quantitative approaches and spatial analyzes. This thesis propose rather propose to examine the various forms of intervention which seek to respond to the problem of hunger in this territory by developing a typology allowing them to be organized according to their degree of questioning of the food system. The current food system generates significant inequalities in terms of food access. By reinvesting it, the citizens of North Montreal are gradually developing a form of food democracy. The high level of food insecurity in Montreal-North demonstrates that the traditional approach, which generally revolves around top-down solutions to addressing the problem of hunger, is not enough to address the root of the problem. A new, more radical approach focused on bottom-up solutions must be identified in order to start thinking about the new alternatives available to the citizens of Montreal-North in order to truly tackle the structural causes of food insecurity.

Keyphrases: Food access, Food insecurity, Community organization, Food landscape, Food justice, Food democracy, Food citizenship, Food system
Distribution en taille des particules et nutriments : relation entre le matériel parental et la poussière minérale en désert côtier de la Namibie

Dust particles are primarily known to modify radiative forcing as well as nutrient contribution of coastal regions, but account for an important part of climatic model uncertainties. This project evaluates the characteristics of dust particles in river valleys of Namibia within three valleys of the coastal region. The selection of sites was determined by their frequency of emissions observed by satellite imagery. In 2017, fieldwork measures were taken as well as surfaces samples, which were analysed for their particle size distribution, their mineralogy as well as their elemental composition. The results presented in this thesis look at potential transport emission, to better understand interactions between soil and airborne particles. It was observed that the transect of the Huab valley presents the finest distribution of particles, primarily because of its active river providing finer particles to dust sources. The transect of the Omaruru has a more varied particle size distribution relative to the Huab valley and the Kuiseb, but has some coarser particles present in small quantities. Because of its location, the transect of the Kuiseb is strongly influenced by the Namib sand sea, which is reflected in its particle size distribution. Because of existing literature about dust particles, it is possible to suggest that the Huab valley needs stronger winds to be able to be emissive as it erodes predominantly through a modified direct suspension mechanism. Saltation and bombardment seem to play a more important role in the Kuiseb valley than the other valleys along the coast, such as the Hoanib or the Hunkab, because of its important composition of sand and geomorphology proprieties.

Keyphrases: Aeolian geomorphology, Dust, Coastal region, Arid environnments, Particle distribution, Mineralogy, Elemental
« On se réapproprie le quartier ! » Le rôle des initiatives alimentaires communautaires dans l’affirmation du droit à la ville

This thesis explores the role of community food initiatives in the expression of the right to the city, as envisioned by Henri Lefebvre in 1968. We conducted a case study on Notre Quartier Nourricier (NQN) (Centre-Sud, Montreal) to verify if this project, articulated around the right to food, allows participants to reclaim their neighbourhood and participate more in community life. Our data collection, based on 17 semi-structured interviews and more than 100 hours of observation, revealing that by seeking to recover a certain reward on the local food system, NQN creates heterotopic places articulated around food production, distribution and transformation. These places become the support of rich social relations, outside of capitalist values. The feeling of belonging to the neighbourhood is thus reinforced, even created, which produces, among the participants in NQN, a desire to take part in neighbourhood life. In our opinion, NQN is thus building a « habiter nourricier », which promotes a certain reappropriation of the conditions of urban life. This « habiter nourricier » makes it possible to collectively claim a greater right to the city. From a theoretical point of view, combining the right to food with the right to the city gives a holistic look at the urban condition – marked by alienation and woven with dispossession stories –, and highlights the common roots of urban hunger and the constant restructuring of the urban space: capitalism.

Keyphrases: Henri Lefebvre, right to the city, right to food, heterotopia, urban condition, Montreal
Catégoriser et raconter la religion : les narrations religieuses et leurs frontières

The aim of this thesis is to devise a tool allowing us to think about religion in such a way as to preserve the advancements of the authors conceptualizing it through the notion of frontier while taking in greater consideration the understandings of the actors who practise it. To this end, I adapt Danielle Juteau’s (2015) concept of two-sided frontier to conceive religion as a category formed by the relationship between an Us and an Other—the external side—as well as by the interpretations that individuals make of their own religious practices—the internal side. To grasp this internal side, I argue that the current attempts to define religion are inadequate and that it’s more useful to understand it as a form of social practices which acquire (religious) meaning by their insertion into narratives. This operation being a reaction to traumatic events, I show that religion can be thought, from the frontier’s internal side, as a particular set of historically located narratives of which individuals have the momentary impression that they’re shared. Thus, to be understood, these narratives have to be replaced in the context of their emergence. In Europe, that means to analyze the first attempts to impose an understanding of religion to every individual at the turn of the modern age, while, in the rest of the world, it means instead to analyze the exportation of these narratives into the colonial empires.

Keyphrases: Religion, Narrative, Frontier, Two-sided frontier, Definition, Social practice, Religious practice, Religious meaning
Penser l’identité et le rapport à l’Autre au Québec, perspectives selon la pensée de Kitaro Nishida

From the Quiet Revolution to the all-encompassing events of the Bouchard-Taylor Commission, the issue of intercultural and interfaith relations in Quebec still occupies a large part of public debate. Many authors have shown that particular relationships would have settled in the course of history between “representations of identity” and “events” specific to a French-Canadian culture. This relational peculiarity, which is characterized in the form of “imaginary links” with certain “historical events”, would paradoxically have the property of causing a break with its past. This dynamic of relationships that we represent in Quebec and that we situate in a perspective of interconnection between what represents the “we” and what represents the “Other” is an interesting way of thinking about it in another way. To think about the relationship to the “Other” in Quebec. Addressing this question, inspired by the thought of Kitaro Nishida, a Japanese philosopher of the early 20th century, whose works have been translated by an author, Jacynthe Tremblay, offers an unprecedented perspective on the question of identity and its relation with the world around him. Nishida will speak about the relationship between the “I” and the “you” from which he will be able to show how the “I” of modern subjectivity (the consciousness of “I” that he has of himself) is a problem to this otherness. He proposes to deconstruct this self-consciousness to be able to envisage a new consciousness of “self” and of the “Other” which will culminate in the notion of “true self” and ultimately to a relation to the “other-absolute” or the “Historical world”. Intrinsic notions considered according to Nishida, fundamental to human existence and essential for a harmony of differences.

Keyphrases: Dialogue, Relation, Intercultural, Interreligious, Other, Catholicism, Philosophy, Otherness, Relationship, Identity