Multidisciplinary Researches on the Societies of the Niger Bend

这是我们8年项目的最后一年，我们对这个国际多学科项目的研究成果进行了综合。在参与者写了11篇文章之后，我们正在出版我们项目报告的第四卷，同前几卷一样，总是用法语出版，目的是将研究结果提供给被研究国家的国民，并促进非洲学家之间在国际一级的信息交流。我们的最终报告包括以下文章，分为三部分。第一部分由四项关于尼日尔弯地区地理、历史和文化背景的研究组成：萨赫勒和斯瓦希里的比较研究，非洲非洲和阿拉伯人接触的两个重要地区（KAWADA），尼日尔内陆三角洲地区陶瓷的历时调查（SANOGO和DEMBELE），尼日尔弯地区丧葬习俗研究（SANOGO）和前殖民时期马洛斯的政治作用研究（SAKAI）。第二部分是关于生存活动及其变化，我们对马里谷子种植（OHJI）进行了深入调查，对Bozo人捕鱼方法的创新进行了技术社会学思考（KASSIBO），并对西非五个不同民族（HOSAKA， ASHIZAWA等）发现的身体技术的文化和物理方面进行了两份报告。第三部分，题为“转型和危险中的文化遗产”，包括对问候的符号学研究（SOW），对正在消失的曼丁口述历史（NAKAMURA）的深入实地研究（NAKAMURA）和对马里共和国考古遗址遭受严重破坏的相关报告（DEMBELE）。

This is the last year of our eight-year project, and we made a synthesis of the researches that have been carried out in this international and multidisciplinary project. With eleven articles written by the participants, we are publishing the fourth volume of the report of our project, always in French as preceding volumes, with the intention to render the results of the researches to the nationals of the studied country, as well as to facilitate the exchange of information among the Africanists on international level.Our final report includes the following articles devided in three parts. The first part is composed of four studies on the geographical, historical and cultural settings of the Niger Bend area : a comparative study on Sahel and Swahili, the two important areas of Afro-Arabic contact in Africa (KAWADA), the diachronic investigation on the ceramics found in the interior delta area of the Niger (SANOGO and DEMBELE), a study on the funeral customs of the Niger Bend area (SANOGO) and that on the political role of marabouts in pre-colonial times (SAKAI).In the second part treating the subsistence activities and their change, we have a thoroughgoing investigation on the millet cultivation in Mali (OHJI), a technosociological consideration on the innovation of fishing methods among the Bozo (KASSIBO) and two reports on the cultural and physical aspects of the techniques of the body found in five different ethnic groups of West Africa (HOSAKA, ASHIZAWA and others).The third part, entitled "the cultural heritage in transformation and in danger", comprises a semiotic study of greetins (SOW), an intensive field research on the disappearing Manding oral history (NAKAMURA) and a pertinent report on the serious damage inflicted on the archaeological sites in Republic of Mali (DEMBELE).