When Captain Binger traveled the Niger bend between 1887 and 1889, he saw numerous villages that had been drained of their lifeblood or left in ruins by violent conflicts that had left their mark in the form of fortifications. Above all he was struck by the region's depopulation, which threatened to compromise the potential for colonial exploitation of the country. But these conditions did not prevail throughout the entire area. Prosperous towns were engaged in trade, war parties were living in (...) ostentation, and rulers were collecting taxes from their subjects. The misery of the peasants’ lives contrasted with the opulent luxury of the courts and caravansaries. The black slave trade, and slavery itself, did not exert a uniform effect upon all of Africa. (shrink)

The article looks at the varying forms taken by parenthood in different societies, past and present. It examines how it belatedly came to be defined by Lewis Morgan, in the context of our modern societies, in terms of an aristocratic and genetic conception, thus establishing a model which Lévi-Strauss unintentionally took to an aporia. Against such a schematic conceptualisation of parenthood, the article posits the material and sentimental links which grow from the responsibilities assumed for the material and educational needs (...) of minors by « parents » devoid of any genetic link to those who are dependent on their care. (shrink)