«J’ai un corps» les enjeux missionnaires de la traduction et de l’interprétation chez Maurice Leenhardt
In this text, I propose an exercise of interpretation on an enigmatic statement made by Bwêêyöû Ërijiyi, a Kanak of New Caledonia, and reported by Maurice Leenhardt, the ethnologist and missionary who had converted him to protestantism: “You didn’t bring the spirit to us. ... What you brought to us is the body.” I begin by attempting to understand the importance of this statement for M. Leenhardt, to explain why he frequently quoted it. Closely connected to Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, M. Leenhardt thought...