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Article ID: CBB560301160

Une sauvage si sauvage: une esquimaude qui n’en était pas une… (2021)

Geostorie, Bolletino e Notiziario del Centro Italiano per gli Studi Storico-Geografici
Volume: 29
Issue: 2
Pages: 77-105

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Geography Indigenous peoples; indigeneity Anthropology Science and literature Eskimos Enlightenment 18th century France North America

Nimbée d’un halo de mystère, l’Histoire d’une jeune fille sauvage trouvée dans les bois à l’âge de dix ans... est une œuvre à succès rédigée, avec le concours de Charles-Marie de la Condamine, par Marie-Catherine Homassel Hecquet, dame de charité et fervente janséniste. À la manière d’un récit-enquête, elle relate l’extra-ordinaire cheminement en humanité d’une ‟Sauvageonne” venue d’Amérique et capturée, en l’an 1731, dans les forêts de Songy. Dans l’Europe des Lumières, reines, princes de sang et philosophes s’intéressent au cas singulier de cette ‟Sauvage si sauvage” (Racine). Suivant l’anamnèse d’une mémoire chancelante et ébranlée, l’Histoire relate la métamorphose de cette ‟étrange étrangère” qui, découverte dans un état de régression comportementale, s’est muée, grâce à une ‟domestication progressive”, en bonne chrétienne et, in fine, en une femme de lettres. Pourquoi Mme Hecquet, confortée par le Géographe, retient-elle l’ascendance esquimaude de celle qui fut baptisée sous le nom de Marie-Angélique Le Blanc? Par un télescopage des documents d’époque et une étude comparée des sources, nous déconstruisons cette ‟conjecture vraisemblable” qui, bien qu’erronée, fut fonctionnelle au projet prosélyte et réformateur des ‟appelants”. Dans la controverse entre jansénistes et ultramontains, quelle preuve plus éclatante aurait-on pu convoquer pour témoigner de l’universalité (conditionnelle) du Salut, que l’éligibilité au Don de Grâce des Esquimaux, les « Sauvages des Sauvages»? [Abstract translated by Google Translate: This is the abstract in English… Shrouded in a halo of mystery, The Story of a wild young girl found in the woods at the age of ten... is a successful work written, with the help of Charles-Marie de la Condamine, by Marie-Catherine Homassel Hecquet, lady of charity and fervent Jansenist. In the manner of an investigative story, it recounts the extraordinary journey in humanity of a "Savage" who came from America and was captured, in the year 1731, in the forests of Songy. In Enlightenment Europe, queens, blood princes and philosophers are interested in the singular case of this 'Savage so savage' (Racine). Following the anamnesis of a faltering and shaken memory, the story relates the metamorphosis of this 'strange foreigner' who, discovered in a state of behavioral regression, has turned, thanks to a 'progressive domestication', into a good Christian and, ultimately, into a woman of letters. Why does Mme Hecquet, comforted by the Geographer, retain the Eskimo ancestry of the one who was baptized under the name of Marie-Angélique Le Blanc? By telescoping the documents of the time and a comparative study of the sources, we deconstruct this "probable conjecture" which, although erroneous, was functional to the proselytizing and reforming project of the "appellants". In the controversy between Jansenists and Ultramontans, what more striking evidence could one have summoned to bear witness to the (conditional) universality of Salvation than the eligibility for the Gift of Grace of the Eskimos, the "Savages of the Savages"?]

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