La « Transculturation » : un nouveau paradigme parmi les modèles de transition

Several models have been proposed to explain processes underlying the transition between different techno-cultural assemblages in prehistoric archaeology. These ‘transitions’ either represent phenomena of ‘gradualism’ connected to in situ evolution or ‘diffusionism’ by various ‘acculturation’ processes prone to external influences (direct loans) and necessarily implicating long-distance migrations of populations. Following a review of the original formulation of these two processes, an alternative paradigm is proposed – ‘transculturation’. Borrowed from ethnologists and introduced by F. Ortiz in 1940, this process is characterised by the integration (through indigenous re-interpretation) of external influences via indirect loans derived from intimate interpersonal contacts. In the sense of the term employed here, transculturation can take several different forms (imitation, assimilation, hybridisation, re-interpretation) that are better suited to accounting for the diverse transformations evident in the archaeological record. Contrarily to acculturation which imposes new (foreign) manners of doing things, transculturation reinvests the people hidden behind each techno-culture as the primary agents of their own transformation in that they may or may not be open to the diffusion of certain external ideas and have the possibility of re-interpreting them rather then suffering them.