Cécile Guillaume-Pey
Research Fellow
Institutional affiliation(s): CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research)
Presentation
Cécile Guillaume-Pey is a CNRS Research Fellow. She obtained her PhD in social anthropology from the EHESS. Her dissertation focused on the ritual practices of the Sora, a tribal group of Central Eastern India. As a Fyssen Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast and University College Cork, and as a Yale Institute of Sacred Music Fellow, her project, entitled From Ritual Images to Animated Movies: The Transformative Journey of Sora Paintings, investigated the reshaping of Sora murals into art. As a postdoctoral Fellow of the Labex “Création, Arts, Patrimoine” in Paris, she had the opportunity to more deeply compare the trajectories of Sora paintings with other religious images and objects, examining the relationships between ritual, art and cultural heritage at the museums in Bhopal (Central India) that played an important role in the emergence of “tribal art.” Her current research, begun as a Research Fellow at the CEFRES (Prague) and at the LabEx HASTEC, focuses on a writing system that now competes with Sora ritual paintings: a script created in the 1930s by a Sora teacher for the purpose of transcribing his language. Currently, this script—which materializes spirits—is used in a ritual context. In addition to investigating the spreading of this cult among the Sora who have migrated to different states, this project tackles more general socio-religious questions such as: the effects of religious conversion, the reshaping of the relationship between the living and the dead, and the issues raised by the appropriation of writing by oppressed and politically marginalized groups in a post-colonial context.
Current Position
CNRS Research Fellow, Centre for South Asian Studies (CEIAS, UMR 8564, EHESS-CNRS, Paris)
Associated to LAHIC (IIAC, UMR 8177, CNRS-EHESS)
Associated to Labex HASTEC (CéSor)
Associated to Centre d’Anthropologie Sociale (LISST, UMR 5193, CNRS-EHESS)
Member of the Advisory Network of the Center for the Study of Material and Visual Cultures of Religion (Yale University)
Research Interests
Tribal groups in India (Adivasi)
Religion and material culture
Art, process of aestheticisation and museumization
Transmission of knowledge
Invention of writing systems and learning of literacy skills
Conversion to Judaism and Judaizing movements
Publications
Book edited
(in press) | With Thomas Galoppin, Ce que peuvent les pierres. Vie et puissance des matières lithiques entre rites et savoirs, Collection « Religions. Comparatisme - Histoire – Anthropologie », Presses Universitaires de Liège
Articles in peer-reviewed journals
2019 | "Tracer des désirs et contraindre les dieux. Production et circulation d’images rituelles chez les Sora", in Luca, Polo de Beaulieu, Bigg, Capone, Wanono (eds.), Des techniques pour croire, Archives des Sciences Sociales des Religions, n°187, pp. 77-102, (https://doi.org/10.4000/assr.45965).
2018 | ‘‘Des rebelles armés de feuilles blanches aux déchiffreurs de pierres. Appropriation de l’écriture chez les Sora et d’autres groupes tribaux de l’Inde (Adivasi)’’, in P. Déléage & O. Morin (eds.) « Ecritures », Terrain n°70, pp. 62-81, (https://doi.org/10.4000/terrain.17186).
2018 | "De la Dame en rose aux calligraphes anonymes. Processus de création et de (re)-définition de ‘‘l’art tribal’’ dans l’espace muséal à Bhopal" in Cahiers du CAP n°5, La Sorbonne, pp. 107-130, (https://books.openedition.org/psorbonne/8931?lang=fr).
2017 | "Boire des lettres ou converser avec les esprits ? Tensions rituelles autour de l’écrit chez les Sora", in Gobin & Vanhoenacker, (eds.) Retour au rituel. Ethnographiques.org n°33, (http://www.ethnographiques.org/2016/Guillaume-Pey)
2017 | "Peindre, lire ou photocopier. Reconfiguration d’un savoir rituel chez les Sora", Annales de la Fondation Fyssen n°30, 2017 : 11-30 (online in French and English versions: http://www.fondationfyssen.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/FYSSEN-30.pdf).
2016 | "Les Pots-esprits et leurs maisons. Etude d’un complexe d’objets rituels chez les Sora" in La force des objets – Matières à expériences. Actions rituelles, médiations, substances. Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions, n° 174, pp. 303-326, (https://doi.org/10.4000/assr.27845)
Encyclopedia articles
(accepted) | “Inventions scripturaires dans les tribus de l’Inde’’, in A. Castaing, N. Dejenne & C. Le Blanc (dir.) Dictionnaire Encyclopédique des Littératures de l’Inde.
2019 | “Embodying spirits from paintings to script: Ritual change among the Sora”, Encyclopedia of Religions of Indigenous People of South Asia, dir. Carrin & Rousseleau, BRILL, https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-encyclopedia-of-the-religions-of-the-indigenous-people-of-south-asia-online/saora-embodying-spirits-from-paintings-to-script-ritual-change-among-the-saora-COM_032057?s.num=3
Chapters in Books
(accepted) | "Offrir un corps alphabétique à Jagannath. Essor d’un mouvement réformateur tribal en contexte pluri-religieux", in « Les Hindous, les Autres et l’Ailleurs », Purushartha, vol 38, dirigé par M. Claveyrolas et P-Y. Trouillet
(in press) | (with T. Galoppin), « Que peuvent les pierres ? Entrée en matière », in Galoppin & Guillaume-Pey (eds), Ce que peuvent les pierres. Vie et puissance des matières lithiques entre rites et savoirs, Collection « Religions. Comparatisme - Histoire – Anthropologie », Presses Universitaires de Liège, pp. 9-29.
(in press) | "A Script ‘‘good to drink’’ The invention of writing systems among the Sora and other tribes of India”, In P. Steele, P. Boyes & N. E. Astoreca (eds.) The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices, Oxbow books, Oxford
2017 | "From ritual images to Animated Movies. The transformative journey of Sora paintings", in U. Skoda, B. Lettmann & N. Kumar (Eds.) Mapping Visualities: India and its Visual Cultures, SAGE, pp. 142-170
2017 | "Corps de pierres, chants et grognements" in Bonnet, Belayche, Albert-Llorca, Avdeef, Massa, Slobodzianek (eds.), La puissance divine à l’épreuve du comparatisme : constructions, variations et réseaux relationnels, Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Sciences Religieuses (BEHE-SR), pp. 213-229, 2017, (https://doi.org/10.1484/M.BEHE-EB.5.114085).
2016 | "Between village and school, Transmission of ritual knowledge among the Sora young generation", in M. Carrin et D. Blanc (Eds.) Transfer of knowledge and children agency: rebuilding the paradigm of socialization, pp. 79-93.
2014 | "From blood to scripture. Religious conversions and the making of identity among the Sora", in M. Carrin, G. Toffin & P. Kanungo (Eds.), The Politics of Ethnicity in India, Nepal and China, Primus, pp 223-239
2012 | "Whose centre? Gonasika, a tribal sacred place and a Hindu centre of pilgrimage", in M. Carrin & L. Guzy (Eds.), Voices from the Periphery. Subalternity and empowerment in India, Routledge, pp. 182-202.
Book reviews
(accepted) | Peter Berger, Feeding, Sharing, and Devouring. Ritual and Society in Highland Odisha, India, De Gruyter, 2015, 617 p., in BEFEO
2015 | A. Kedzierska-Manzon, Chasseurs mandingues. Violence, pouvoir et religion en Afrique de l’Ouest. Paris, Editions Karthala, 2014, in Archives de sciences sociales des religions, No. 168 : 229-232, 2015.
2013 | M. Houseman, Le rouge est le noir. Essais sur le rituel. (Toulouse, Presses Universitaire du Mirail, 2012), in L’Homme, No. 207-208.
Abstract of the PhD dissertation
2012 | « Du sang à l'écriture. Les pratiques rituelles des Sora, une tribu du centre-est de l'Inde », Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 160, pp.: 309-358. (https://doi.org/10.4000/assr.24583)
Current Editorial Board
2020-present | Terrain (https://blogterrain.hypotheses.org/)
2019-present | Ethnographiques.org (https://www.ethnographiques.org/)
Teaching
2018–2021 | Course at EHESS, Paris (with Caterina Guenzi and Paul Sorrentino): « Spécialistes, maîtres et experts en Asie. Vers une anthropologie des modes de consultation » (24h/an)
2017–2018 | Course at EHESS, Paris (with Aurélie Névot): « Ecritures minoritaires d’Asie. Origines, transmissions et usages » (16h)
2016–2017 | Research seminar inter-Labex (HASTEC/TransferS) at Collège de France, Paris: « Quand l’écriture est happée par le rite. Créations, usages, réappropriations », avec B. Gaillemin (12h)
2014–2015 | Lecturer at Yale, Department of Religious Studies:
- Seminar ‘‘Ritual and Art in Tribal India’’ (Graduates and undergraduates)
2013-2014 | Lecturer at the School of Asian Studies, University College Cork (UCC, Ireland)
- “Indigenous religions” (Graduate and undergraduate students)
- Ethnography – Theory and Methods” (graduates)
- Organiser of a weekly research seminar (PhD students)
2009 – 2011 | Lecturer, Université de Toulouse 2 Le Mirail - Université du Temps Libre (France)
- Religion and politics in India
- Rural and tribal art in India
- Introduction to Ethnology
2005 – 2008 | Lecturer – Université de Toulouse 2 Le Mirail (France)
192 heures Cours Magistraux/ Travaux Dirigés (CM/TD) (Volume horaire annuel de 64h)
- Anthropology of knowledge (undergraduate students)
- Research theory and methods in Social Anthropology (undergraduate students)
- Introduction to Anthropology (undergraduate students)
Organization of Conferences, Workshops, Symposiums
2017 (June) | Organization with Thomas Galoppin of the international workshop “Breathing, growing and singing stones. Approche comparée de l’usage de supports lithiques en contexte rituel’’, supported by the Labex Hastec – CéSor, LEM at INHA, Paris.
2016 (April) | Organization of the international workshop “Ritual change in South Asia. Circulations, transfers, transgressions’’, at the CEFRES, Prague, in collaboration with the Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, and Charles University in Prague.
2016 (May) | Organization with Pénélope Patrix of the international workshop "Exposition et création: nouveaux récits et expériences du musée’’, with the support of the Labex CAP at EHESS, Paris.
2015 (March) | Co-organization of the symposium, “Beyond the veil. Negotiating Boundaries in Sacred Music, Worship, and the Arts”, Yale University.
2013 (Oct.) | Organization of the international workshop "Indigenous Aesthetics and marginalized System of Knowledge", School of Asian Studies, University College Cork (Ireland).
2013 (May) | Organization with Lidia Guzy of the panel “Sacred landscape and indigenous imaginary”, at the Annual Conference of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions (ISASR), University College Dublin.
2008 | Engaged in the Organization ‘‘Les étoiles brillent pour tous’’ to promote the diffusion of knowledge in prisons, hospitals, and nursing-homes. Co-organisation of conferences on « Memory » in the Jail of Muret (France).
Research Grants and Fellowships
École française d’Extrême-Orient Postdoctoral Fellowship (2018)
Laboratoire d’Excellence HASTEC Postdoctoral Fellowship (2016-2017)
Laboratoire d’Excellence ‘‘Création, Arts et Patrimoines” Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015-2016)
Research grant from Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH) and the Centre Français de Recherche en Sciences Sociales (CEFRES, USR 3138 CNRS-MAEDI, Prague) (2015)
Yale Institute of Sacred Music Fellowship (2014-2015)
Fyssen Postdoctoral Fellowship (2012-2013)
Ph.D Research Fellowship (Allocation de Recherche) at EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Toulouse)
Grant from INHA (Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art), Paris (2006)
Fieldwork grant from EHESS (2004)
Last update: 9 February 2021
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Actualités
Devenir juifs : conversions et assertions identitaires en Inde et au Pakistan
Débat - Mardi 9 mai 2023 - 14:00Présentation« L’an prochain à Jérusalem ! », scande un homme portant une kippa dans une synagogue de Karachi au Pakistan. Ses paroles sont répétées en chœur par les membres de sa communauté, un groupe comptant près de trois cents personnes qui s’autodésignent par (...)(...)
Le Centre d'études sud-asiatiques et himalayennes (Cesah), nouveau laboratoire de recherche (EHESS/CNRS) sur le Campus Condorcet
Échos de la recherche -Depuis le 1er janvier 2023, l'EHESS, en tant que co-tutelle, compte un nouveau centre de recherche né de la fusion du Centre d'études de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud (CEIAS - EHESS/CNRS) et du Centre d’études himalayennes (CEH - CNRS) : le Centre d'études sud-asiatiques et h (...)(...)
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