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2006/2007 ; LA PROIEZIONE ENERGETICA CINESE NEGLI SCENARI CAPITALISTICI GLOBALI Dottorando: Dr. Fabio Massimo Parenti Relatore: Prof.ssa MARIA PAOLA PAGNINI RIASSUNTO L'analisi dei cambiamenti economico-politici al livello globale ha costituito una sfida costante alla quale gli scienziati sociali sono stati chiamati a rispondere. Ciò ha portato, nel corso del tempo, allo sviluppo di molteplici approcci interpretativi, capaci di volta in volta di fornire modelli esplicativi più o meno efficaci. L'emergere della cosiddetta globalizzazione ha poi accelerato, in una certa misura, il bisogno di proseguire tali studi, che malgrado la loro diversità sono confluiti il più delle volte nell'ambito disciplinare delle "Relazioni Internazionali" (RI). La tesi sulla proiezione energetica cinese negli scenari capitalistici globali tenta di entrare in questo ampio dibattito, partendo innanzitutto dall'adesione alle analisi più accreditate sui principali cambiamenti geoeconomici e geopolitici in corso - la ricomparsa dell'Asia al centro del sistema produttivo/commerciale mondiale, il declino dell'egemonia statunitense e l'emerge della Cina come nuovo centro di accumulazione capitalistica3 - e nel contempo dalla dissociazione da quelle sulla riduzione dell'importanza dello Stato-nazione e sull'emergere di una nuova "guerra fredda". La crescente integrazione cinese al modo di produzione capitalistico svela sia la centralità dello Stato-nazione dietro i nuovi processi di accumulazione asiatici, sia le crescenti interdipendenze economico-finanziarie fra gli USA e la Cina, sia infine l'emergere di un modello di sviluppo cinese sui generis, che abbiamo definito del free State (in confronto a quello del free trade britannico e del free enterprises statunitense). Le strategie energetiche cinesi, incentrate su una serie di accordi bi/multilaterali, regionali ed intersocietari, rendono conto dell'ampiezza dei processi di accumulazione capitalistica in alcuni poli asiatici, della spinta verso l'integrazione macroregionale e delle conseguenze geopolitiche prodotte da tali movimenti. Ricordandoci, in ultima istanza, la dipendenza delle dinamiche di cambiamento dalla dimensione energetico-materiale. Sottolineando dapprima i limiti interpretativi delle RI, in particolare delle analisi più influenti dell'approccio realista (Huntington, 1996; Bernstein e Munro, 1997; Mearsheimer, 2001, e altri), la tesi proposta rivendica la centralità dello sguardo geografico nella comprensione della natura dei cambiamenti in fieri, nonché l'adeguatezza degli strumenti analitici della disciplina geografica (l'articolazione scalare degli spazi umani) nella interpretazione della dinamica capitalistica globale (Harvey) e dei correlati sviluppi geopolitici. Il ricorso a un'analisi energetica e interscalare, che ha messo al centro dell'attenzione la regione mobile e l'infrastruttura, ha consentito di svelare la parziale trasformazione degli Stati nazione in "entità regionali mobili" (imbrigliate in un sistema sempre più interdipendente e competitivo), nonché la capacità degli Stati stessi di produrre regionalità. Da questa angolazione, il cambiamento degli equilibri del sistema internazionale è stato desunto proprio a partire dall'analisi degli sviluppi che occorrono nelle principali regioni strategiche (geo-energetico-minerarie) e dalla costruzione di sistemi di controllo economico-finanziario, direttamente influenzati dalle politiche dei principali attori statuali. Nello specifico, la tesi ha cercato di rispondere alla seguente domanda: perché la rivalità sul controllo delle risorse petrolifere (USA/Cina) si sta ponendo in forme nuove rispetto al passato? In condizioni geoeconomiche in profondo mutamento, e nell'ambito di una competizione capitalistica Ovest/Est, la Cina si moverebbe con approccio diverso dagli USA, inserendosi nei processi di globalizzazione con una diversa soggettività politica e un compromesso sui generis fra lo Stato e gli interessi economici capitalistici. Il Beijing consensus è il frutto di una strategia alternativa a quella degli USA (basata sul sostegno alle private corporations e ai loro interessi immediati), che possiamo riassumere in tre elementi distintivi: l'uso prevalente delle State-owned enterprises per scopi strategici; la costruzione di rapporti di lungo periodo, tramite investimenti in perdita o con ritorni minimi; e infine, ma non meno importante, l'attenta elaborazione di politiche macroeconomiche (monetarie, fiscali e industriali) tese a ridurre le ripercussioni negative indotte da un eccessivo affidamento agli aggiustamenti di mercato. Mentre l'approccio unilaterale degli USA sembra essere il risultato di un progressivo declino di legittimità e consenso (Washington consensus), l'azioni cinese nel mondo non ha come obiettivo l'egemonia, ma il consolidamento di uno status di grande potenza, garante di un ordine mondiale multipolare. Una strategia che è coerente con alcuni principi guida scritti nella costituzione del 1982, e che riguardano il rispetto della sovranità e dell'integrità territoriale, la non aggressione, la non ingerenza negli affari interni, l'eguaglianza e la coesistenza pacifica. Nella sostanza, la Cina si oppone all'imperialismo e all'egemonismo e si impegna a sostenere le nazioni oppresse, la pace e il progresso nel mondo (Rinella, 2006). Tuttavia, non è l'ordine unipolare in sé che viene contestato, quanto piuttosto la posizione egemonica degli USA nei confronti della Cina, la quale è preoccupata degli effetti che l'unilateralismo statunitense possa avere sulla stabilità di regioni del mondo da cui dipende il suo sviluppo (Foot, 2006). L'obiettivo di costruire un mondo multipolare si traduce in un'estesa strategia di cooperazione bilaterale e regionale con quegli Stati asiatici, come la Russia e l'Iran, che condividono lo stesso bisogno cinese di rimarginare gli squilibri prodotti dall'unilateralismo statunitense (Domenach, 2003; Garver, 2006). Inoltre, l'emergere di un'architettura energetica asiatica più indipendente dall'Occidente, nonché di un sistema economico-finanziario multipolare, dipende anche dal ruolo ricoperto dall'India e da altri Stati asiatici (tra cui soprattutto il Pakistan, le Repubbliche Centro-Asiatiche, l'Iran e l'Arabia Saudita), le cui interdipendenze geoeconomiche e politiche con la Cina stanno aumentando sia nell'ambito di rapporti bilaterali, sia nella sfera d'influenza della Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) (cioè uno spazio regionale riconosciuto de jure e in continua espansione). L'evoluzione di questa organizzazione va avanti e si rafforza sul piano di accordi economici ed energetici, che sono finalizzati, in ultima istanza, a costruire un tessuto di infrastrutture capaci di "vestire" la macroregione asiatica. Le ambizioni della Cina sono concretamente sostenute dalla sua performance economica, molto significativa sul piano quantitativo e qualitativo, dal connesso sviluppo di tecnologia militare (missili, satelliti, nucleare etc.) e dalla sua abilità diplomatica, che in ultima istanza si rifà ai principi originari dell'Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite. Tutte carte da grande potenza che gli consentono di giocare un ruolo sempre più importante sull'arena internazionale, in cui l'emergere di una nuova Guerra Fredda non sembra essere un esito compatibile con i nuovi sistemi di organizzazione economico-politica capitalistica al livello mondiale. Se lo sviluppo cinese e statunitense dipende in modo crescente da ampi sistemi di approvvigionamento energetico che possono entrare in competizione, entrambi i Paesi sono sempre più legati sul piano economico-finanziario. ; XX Ciclo

In Italy, Protection System for Asylum Seekers and Refugees (SPRAR) manages the second reception of forced migrants. This organization was founded by the Bossi-Fini law n. 189/2002 and is composed by the network of local governments, which uses the available resources of National Fund for Asylum Policies and Services provided by Government finance law and managed by the Ministry of Interior. Its principal goal is to realize integrated reception projects for refugees, asylum seekers, subsidiary and humanitarian protection holders in order to ensure their socio-economic inclusion within local contexts in cooperation with voluntary and third sector organizations. On 10th July 2014, local governments were signed an agreement between national and regional executive to create a national reception system to face the growing number of people who have arrived on the Italian coasts. The main goal of this system is to overcome only a material reception (food and lodging), in order to offer a "widespread reception" within urban areas. The strategy is to create an individual project and an accompaniment to ensure the integration of each person in the local community. The services provided consist in inclusion of migrants in the national health and scholastic system, orientation and access to other local services, professional training, job placement, legal assistance and social and housing integration . Indeed, it is crucial to emphasize that the Italian reception system is characterized by extreme fragmentation. Only SPRAR provides these services with the goal of enabling social and economic inclusion of hosted people in local context, which is why we talk about second reception centres. In Italy, there are, however, many different types of first and extraordinary reception centres for migrants . They are managed by the prefectures and differ in terms of goals, structural characteristics, services and receptive capacity. Only 18.7% of migrants are hosted in the SPRAR structures, while the remainder incurs the possibility of carrying out the entire procedure of the asylum application in the centres of first and extraordinary reception (IDOS, 2017). In recent years, the Italian reception structures have undergone a reorganization and redenomination phase, in which the SPRAR should have become a reference standard. In fact, this system has positively distinguished itself for its objectives, the structuring of his interventions and many best practices. This did not prevent bad reception occurrences even within SPRAR structures, as well as a large number of violent and verbal conflicts, some of which carried out by Italian citizens to the detriment of asylum seekers and owners of a status of international protection. These episodes, exacerbated by a political and media discourse that represents migrants as a threat (Battistelli et al., 2016), are the consequence and symbol of the fragmentary and contradictory reception policies adopted at a European level, in the individual countries and at a local level (IDOS, 2016). Instability and political, economic and social uncertainty, rulers in this historical period, are manifested in an emergency approach that is characterized by insufficient planning and a lack of coordination between the reception agencies. This orientation, supported by many and incongruent legislative changes, deprives the system of a strong structure and facilitates the overturning of the same principles of "widespread reception" of migrants in local communities. Moreover, this facilitates the affirmation of nationalist, xenophobic and localist drifts, as well as reception situations in which human rights are violated and which do not provide real opportunities for inclusion in the territories in a safe and dignified manner. Therefore, the conceptual distinction of the terms danger, risk and threat, used as the interpretative line of this work, appears fundamental to understand why subjective responses, in terms of perception and actions, differ according to the situations, as well as to manage the effects that derive in a consistent manner (Battistelli e Galantino, 2018). In order to realize the analysis, I decided to use an ethnographic approach that is traced back to the constructivist philosophical paradigm, where the vision of facts is investigated locally. Ethnographers, indeed, study subjects, artefacts and actions in their interactions, from an interpretative-dialectical point of view, without the claim of absolute objectivity of the results (Piccardo and Benozzo, 1996). Then, I have chosen to use focused narrative interviews because they turn to individuals, they aim for their "understanding", and this is part of the renewed interest in the subject's centrality and in the "deliberately intentional" social action (Weber, 1922). It is also an approach that allows investigating deeply the phenomena. It is very interactive, flexible and able to empathize in the perspective of the subject being studied. This makes it easier to interview marginal subjects neglected by "official knowledge" and to rediscover the social function of research, which is "giving voice to those who do not have it" (Crespi, 1985, pp. 351) In addition, observation and fieldwork are supported by a strong theoretical basis that offers its help to the researcher for the understanding of the social world, providing an order that supports they in their critical analysis of the facts. So, empirical work and theory support each other (Silverman, 2002). Then, narrative approach is highly adaptable to the study of organizations and to analyse the collected data. In fact, this approach is characterized for attention given to concrete situations and not to general theorizations (Czarniawska, 2000). Hence, the empirical research carried out in 2016-2018 can be summarized in the following phases: 1- Analysis of secondary data and documents produced by European and national statistical institutes, private associations, protection bodies and by SPRAR itself. 2- Participant observation in: - a political protest demonstration against the opening of a SPRAR centre in XIII Town Hall, on the north-western suburb of Rome; - nine meetings of social operators working in SPRAR network of Rome and in the national CARA and CAS reception centres; - a SPRAR centre (20 reception places increased to 40 in the south-eastern suburbs of Rome, VII Town Hall). One year of observation and shadowing of operators: 16th January 2017 – 22th January 2018; - a SPRAR apartment (14 reception places for families in the residential area of Monte Sacro neighbourhood, Town Hall III). Five days of observation and shadowing of operators in January 2018; - a seminar of reflection organized by SPRAR and ANCI on the reception system in Lazio, focused on the role of the Regions and Municipalities. 3- Forty-one narrative focused interviews: - Twenty-four SPRAR operators working in SPRAR centres of Rome; - Seventeen asylum seekers and refugees from SPRAR centre observed in Town Hall VII of Rome. The intent behind this ethnographic research started in a restructuring phase aimed to make the SPRAR a reference standard of reception for all asylum seekers who came to our country. But it was characterized, as still today, by speculative situations, the high presence on the territory of large collective reception centres and managing bodies without the necessary experience (Olivieri, 2011; Lunaria 2016). Therefore, the analysis of the risk management and the operators perception of the SPRAR of Rome has the objective to unveil and analyse the contradictions and weaknesses that may arise within this model due to a reckless management that produces specific factors of risk. The hypothesis underlying the case study is that, although the SPRAR has been recognized as an ordinary model, it can also be reproduced in a distorted manner, not respecting the reference guidelines. The alteration between SPRAR in books, the theoretical expression of a principle, and SPRAR in action, its implementation (Pound, 1910), is caused by specific factors that can cause significant effects from several points of view. To bring to light these aspects, closely related to the risk management and the perception that its operators have, I achieve a classification of the risks that I applied to three different types of SPRAR structures (large, medium and single apartment). Then, I identified a series of outcomes involving the people hosted, the operators, the local community and the SPRAR organization itself. The decision to draw the case study at the SPRAR of the city of Rome is driven by the complexity that distinguishes this territory on a social, cultural and political level. In fact, I believe it can bring out the contradictions of the model as new forms of confinement compared to territories with reduced complexity. However, allowing a glimpse of a reception of asylum seekers and holders of a protection status also possible within urban and metropolitan areas. The empirical survey shows that an increase in the distortion compared to the assumptions of an integrated and widespread reception in the territories corresponds to a greater possibility that specific risk factors are produced. Which in their turn, crystallizing into unhealthy forms, can involve the people hosted, the operators, the local community and the SPRAR organization itself. The case study and the application of the risk classification, which I achieved based on the evidence revealed from the field, reveal how the identified risk areas (socio-spatial context, production of the service, recipients) and the corresponding categories, do not produce in itself a negative result. However, this can occur if a short-sighted management acts on these aspects and does not align with the proposed guidelines. Therefore, this classification appears to be a useful tool to identify problems and to develop preventive measures, aimed to improve the management of SPRAR centres in metropolitan cities such as Rome (and other contexts), by intervening on the identified risk categories and reducing the factors that eventually emerge. The analysis, focused on three different types of SPRAR structure (large, medium, single apartment) of the Capital, shows how this alteration occurs in a disruptive way in the large collective centres, the most represented in Rome. Meanwhile, greater adherence to the model is shown, with a modality proportional to the size, in the medium-sized structure and in the apartment. The distortion detected in the large SPRAR collective centres of Rome and partly also in the medium-sized centre, reflects the ambivalence of the general reception system. It promotes on the one hand the principles of a good reception that respects human rights and the autonomy of people and by another implements foreclosure practices and new forms of borders (Vacchiano, 2011; Van Haken, 2008). The field research shows that this happens on different levels due to specific material factors (location and capacity of the centres, management of internal spaces, activation of the services provided, etc.) and through the daily practices of the operators who, in a more or less assenting, controlling and disciplining the people hosted, shape their conduct. Therefore, in the daily life of the structures in which the situations described are involved, the principles of freedom, inclusion and autonomy supported by the rhetoric of reception system are governed by a neoliberal logic of citizenship that suggests the criteria to distinguish, in the same integration paths, who is more worthy than other beneficiaries (Van Haken, 2008). Although the case study highlights strong contradictions and weaknesses that come to life in the implementation of the SPRAR model, it also shows the realization of a good reception. That which, despite being included in an extremely complex context such as Rome, attempts to oppose the "logic of large numbers and profits" of large cooperatives and which implements functional inclusion paths to achieve the objectives. Alignment and consistency with the guidelines and the SPRAR operating manual, in fact, allow the construction of a real project of individualized socio-economic integration for the person hosted. Only by acting in a widespread manner on the territory, in apartments or small centres, the genesis of new forms of borders beyond those already present is avoided. In fact, through this management most of the risks identified are eliminated or at least reduced, precisely because the "trajectory of opportunities" of risk (Reason, 1997) towards unfavourable outcomes generally develops within large collective centres. References Battistelli Fabrizio, Farruggia Francesca, Galantino Maria Grazia and Ricotta Giuseppe. 2016. "Affrontarsi o Confrontarsi? Il "Rischio" Immigrati sulla Stampa Italiana e nella Periferia di Tor Sapienza a Roma". Sicurezza e Scienze Sociali 1:86-112. Battistelli Fabrizio e Galantino Maria Grazia. 2018. "Dangers, Risks and Threats: An Alternative Conceptualization to the Catch-All Concept of Risk". Current Sociology 1-15. Czarniawska Barbara. 2000. Narrare l'organizzazione. La costruzione dell'identità istituzionale. Tr.it. Torino: Edizioni di Comunità. Crespi Franco. 1985. Le vie della sociologia. Bologna: Il Mulino. IDOS in partnership with Confronti. 2017. Dossier Statistico Immigrazione 2017. Roma: Inprinting srl. IDOS. 2016. "INTRA MOENIA. Il Sistema di Accoglienza per Rifugiati e Richiedenti Asilo in Italia nei Rapporti di Monitoraggio Indipendenti". Affari Sociali Internazionali IV (1-4). Lunaria. 2016. Il mondo di dentro. Il sistema di protezione per richiedenti asilo e rifugiati a Roma. (https://www.lunaria.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Il_mondo_di_dentro.pdf). Olivieri Maria Silvia. 2011. "L'accoglienza frantumata sotto il peso dell'«emergenza»", pp. 35-44 in Lunaria. 2011. Cronache di ordinario razzismo. Secondo libro bianco sul razzismo in Italia. Roma: Edizioni dell'Asino. Piccardo Claudia and Benozzo Angelo. 1996. Etnografia organizzativa. Una proposta di metodo per l'analisi delle organizzazioni come culture. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore. Reason James. 1997. Managing the Risks of Organisational Accidents. London: Ashgate Publishing Company. Vacchiano Francesco. 2011. "Discipline della Scarsità e del Sospetto: Rifugiati e Accoglienza nel Regime di Frontiera". Lares LXXVII (1): 181-198. Van Aken Mauro. 2008. Rifugio Milano. Vie di fuga e vita quotidiana dei richiedenti asilo. Roma: Carta. Weber Max. 1922. Economia e Società. Tr.it. Milano: Edizioni di Comunità.

Yukarı Dicle bölgesi, Güneydoğu Anadolu dağ sistemi içerisinde önemli bir alanı temsil etmekte olup, söz konusu özellik Mezopotamya çukur bölgesini hem kuzey hem de doğu Anadolu alanlarına bağlayan bir rol oynamasına imkan sağlayan coğrafi konumu ile ilişkilidir. Dicle nehrinin yukarı çığırında son otuz yılda gerçekleştirilen arkeolojik araştırmalar sayesinde, yerel bir kültürel sistemin tanımlanmasını sağlayacak yeni önemli göstergelere ek olarak, gerek bölge içerisinde gerekse ötesinde zamandizinsel ayrımlar ve eşzamanlılıklara açıklık getirmekte kullanılabilecek kapsamlı bir veri bütüncesi de elde edilmiştir. Bu kitap, Erken ve Orta Tunç Çağı'nın son kısmına ilişkin yakın dönemde yürütülen arkeolojik etkinliklerin sonuçlarını araştırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Yayımlanan verilerin ayrıntılı bir çözümlemesinden başlayarak yerleşkeler, stratigrafi, mimari, çanak çömlekler, bölgesel bağlantılar ve zamandizine ilişkin temel konular ele alınmıştır. Ṭūr ʿAbdīn tepelerinin kuzeyinde, yüksek Güneydoğu Torosların eteklerinde yer alan Yukarı Dicle bölgesi, arkeolojik bulgular açısından tutarlı ve uyumlu bir görüntü çizmektedir. Yürütülen araştırma ve kazılar, vadideki kayda değer bir yerleşim döneminin, ufak boyutlu yerleşimlerin Dicle taşkın ovası kenarındaki akarsu taraçalarında ve ana akarsu kolları boyunca kurulma eğilimi içerisinde oldukları M.Ö. III. binyılın sonu ile M.Ö. II. binyılın ilk yarısı arasında tarihlendirilmesi gerektiğini belgelemektedir. Bunların çoğu, iri yapılar ya da yapı bütünleri ile komşu bölgelerdeki eşzamanlı seramik geleneklerinden farklı nitelikteki yerel bir seramik topluluğu tarafından karakterize edilmektedir. Ağırlıklı olarak kırmızı-kahverengi astarlı ve boyalı çömleklerden oluşan seramik topluluğu, yerel sistemin tanımlanması ve Yukarı Dicle bölgesindeki sahalararası kültürel bağlantıların belirlenmesi açısından önem taşımaktadır. Alanda ele geçirdiğimiz buluntuların büyük kısmını teşkil eden çanak çömlek parçalarının yaygın olarak yer alışı, halihazırda araştırmaların temelini oluşturmalarını sağlamaktadır. Özellikle son dönemdeki araştırmaların üzerinde yoğunlaştığı Yukarı Dicle bölgesinde ele geçirilen çanak çömlekler, diğer buluntu kategorileri ve alandaki varlıklarına kıyasla, yalnızca farklı katman bağlamları dahilinde değil aynı zamanda henüz kazılmamış alanların yüzeylerinde de dikkat çekici nitelikte olup; bu belirgin coğrafi alandaki maddi üretimin belirleyici özelliklerini saptamak ve Yukarı Dicle bölgesindeki kültürel gelişimi daha geniş bir yelpazede yorumlayabilmek adına en güvenilir araçlardan biri olma özelliğine sahiptir. Coğrafi ve tarihi nitelikli kısa önsöz hariç (Bölüm 1), kitabın esas içeriğini bölgede yürütülan arkeolojik araştırmalar ve çözümlemeleri olusturmaktadır (Bölüm 2 & 4). İkinci bölümün konusu, araştırılan alanlar ve kazılan verleşimler olup (Bölüm 2); söz konusu alanlar, bugün itibarıyla sahip olduğumuz arkeolojik bilgilerin en üst seviyesine ışık tutmaktadır. Bu konuda bir diğer önemli katkı sunan Hirbermerdon Tepe'deki kazılar kitabın üçüncü bölümünün ana konusunu teşkil etmekte ve yerleşim evreleri ve ilgili çömlek buluntularını (3.4) da içeren arkeolojik bağlam (3.2) üzerine çoğunluğu yayımlanmamış akla yatkın önermelerde de bulunulmaktadır. Çanak çömlek parçalarının gerek teknolojik gerekse biçimsel açıdan sınıflandırılması (3.3) ile, alandaki varlıklarının mekansal ve zamansal devamlılık özellikleri ve çanak çömlek çeşitlerinin analizine geniş yer ayrılmıştır. Ayrıca temel küçük buluntular da gerek bölgesel gerekse zamandizinsel çerçeve açısından yorumlanmış ve ilgili ögelerle birlikte değerlendirilmiştir (3.5). Seramik buluntularının ayrıntılı bir analizini gerçekleştirebilmek adına yararlandığımız temel bilgi kaynağı Hirbemerdon Tepe höyüğünde gün ışığına çıkarılan yapılar bütünü olmakla birlikte, yerleşimde açılan sondajlardan elde edilen bulgulardan da yararlanılmıştır. Dicle nehrinin sağ kıyısında yer alan Hirbermerdon Tepe'de gerçekleştirilen ilk kazı dönemi (2005-2007), yararlı arkeolojik verileri göz önüne sermenin ötesinde, çoğunluğu M.Ö II. binyılın ilk kısmına tarihlendirilen bol miktarda çanak çömlek buluntusu ve buluntu elde edilmesini de sağlamıştır. Farklı katmanlara ait yeni veriler sunan Hirbermerdon Tepe, böylece Yukarı Dicle vadisinin kültürel profilini belirlemek adına önemli bir katkıda bulunmaktadır. Kazılar, her biri form ve teknolojik özellikleri sayesinde belirlenen üç ana seramik evresi sıralamasını gün ışığına çıkarmıştır (3.6). Yaklaşık olarak Erken Tunç Çağı'nın sonlarına, yani Erken Tunç Çağı III-IV'e (Erken Cezire III-V'in sonu) tarihlendirilen erken evre (1. Evre), kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çanak çömlekler (RBWW) ve koyu turuncu ağızlı çanaklar (DROB) tarafından; Orta Tunç Çağı'na tarihlendirilen orta evre (2. Evre), çoğunlukla kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çanak çömlekler ve şerit boyama çömlekler (band painted ware) tarafından karakterize edilmektedir. Son evre ise (3. Evre) Orta Tunç Çağı ile kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çömleklerden oluşan karmaşık bir repertuvarı gözler önüne sermekte ve Geç Tunç Çağı'na tarihlendirilen Habur ile Nuzi çömlek parçalarını da içermektedir. Hirbemerdon'da Geç Tunç Çağı'na ait kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çömlek bulunup bulunmadığı henüz kesinlik kazanmamıştır. Seramik repertuvarının teknolojik ve biçimsel özellikleri kapsamında tartışılması ve bölgesel bir bağlama yerleştirilmesine ayrıca bir bölüm ayrılmış (3.7) olup; yerel seramik sistemi ile komşu bölgelerdekiler arasındaki ilişkinin altını çizebilmek adına, eldeki veriler diğer sit alanları ve bölgelerden elde edilenlerle karşılaştırılmıştır. Bölümün sonunda ise, bölgesel dönemlendirmeye ilişkin yorumlar yer almakta ve repertuvar için bir tarihlendirme önerisi sunulmaktadır. Bölüm 4, Yukarı Dicle bölgesindeki yerleşim düzeninin gelişimi, yapılar ile elde edilen çanak çömlekler ve önemli küçük buluntulara ilişkin bazı genel yorumlar sunmaktadır. Halihazırda yayımlanmış ve mevcut veriler ile Hirbemerdon Tepe'den elde edilen bulgulara dayanan bu araştırmanın sonuçlarına göre, yerel Orta Tunç Çağı kültürünün yükselişinin M.Ö. III. ile II. binyıl arasındaki geçiş dönemine tarihlendirilmesi gerekmektedir. Yukarı Dicle topluluklarının en etkin oldukları dönemin ise M.Ö. 19. ile 17. yüzyıllar arasına tarihlendirilmesi gerekmekte olup, söz konusu dönem kırmızı kahverengi astarlı/ boyalı çömleklerin ana üretim dönemiyle örtüşmektedir. Yukarı Dicle bölgesine özgü ortak bir seramik repertuvarı tespit edilebilmekte ve özellikle kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çömlekler (RBWW), kırmızı-kahverengi perdahlı çömlekler (RBBW), koyu turuncu ağızlı çanaklar (DROB/DROW) ve çömleğin yüzünü tamamen ya da kısmen örtmek ve dekore etmek amacıyla kullanılan kırmızı-kahverengi astarların karakterize ettiği şerit boyama çömleklerin (BD) varlığı dikkat çekmektedir. Çömlek şekillerinin münferit parçalarını ile paralellik gösteren unsurlara Anadolu ve Suriye'deki Yukarı Fırat bölgesi, Belih Vadisi, Yukarı Habur ve Kuzey Irak düzlük arazileri ve bazen yüksek Anadolu arazilerini de içine alan yaygın bir coğrafyada rastlanmak olsa da, çanak çömleklerin maruz kaldığı yüzey işlemlerinin kendine özgü yerel bir özellik taşıması nedeniyle Dicle vadisi kültürünün belirgin bir ifadesi olarak kabul edilmesi gerekmektedir. Kırmızı-kahverengi astarlı ve boyalı çömleklerin hayli yüksek bir yüzdeye sahip oluşu, Güneydoğu Toros sıradağları ile Van dağ sırasının güneybatısında yer alan Ṭūr ʿAbdīn yüksek arazileri arasında yerel geleneğe yakından bağlı kalmış kendine özgü bir seramik bölgesinin varlığını ileri sürer niteliktedir. Kırmızı-kahverengi çömlekler (DROB/DROW, RBWW, BD), Dicle nehri bölgesindeki aynı imalat geleneğinin ürünleridir. Büyük olasılıkla koyu turuncu ağızlı çanaklar (DROB) M.Ö. II. binyılın başlarında bazı sınırlı istisnalar hariç kullanımdan kalkmış olduğu halde, kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çömlekler (RBWW) ise Orta Tunç Çağı'nın tamamı boyunca ve muhtemelen Geç Tunç Çağı'nın başlarına kadar var olmaya devam etmiştir. Dicle çanak çömlek seçkisi, Fırat bölgesinden Cezire'ye kadar uzanan farklı akımlardan etkilenmiş olup; etkileşimin bazı dönemlerle oldukça yoğun, bazen ise daha seyrek nitelikte olduğu belirlenmiştir. Sonuç kısmını teşkil eden Bölüm 5'te ise, türdeşliğin Dicle Bölgesi'ndeki maddi kültür bağlamında toplumsal ve kültürel değeri araştırılmakta ve belki de siyasi oluşumlarla ilintili bir genel örgütlenmenin varlığına ilişkin görüşler ileri sürülmektedir. Kırmızı-kahverengi seramik tarafından karakterize edilen sit alanları, Erken ve Orta Tunç Çağı arasındaki kültürel devamlılığa dair kanıtlar sunmaktadır. Verilerden hareketle, yerel toplumsal ve siyasi düzenin bir noktada değişime uğradığı ve çok işlevli yapılar barındıran küçük yerleşkeler etrafında odaklanan yeni bir yerleşim düzenine geçildiği ve bu değişimin başta kırmızı-kahverengi boya astarlı çömlekler (RBWW) ve koyu turuncu ağızlı çanaklar (DROB) olmak üzere, kırmızı-kahverengi çömlek gruplarının üretildiği yerleşim alanlarının gelişimiyle özdeşleştirilebileceği varsayımında bulunmak mümkündür. Erken Tunç Çağı dönemine dair fazla bir yorumda bulunmak mümkün değildir. M.Ö III. binyılın ikinci yarısına ait ya da son yüzyıllarına tarihlendirilen buluntular ve katmanlar, birkaç sit alanında gün ışığına çıkartılmasına rağmen, hiçbiri açık bir stratigrafik sıralama ya da nispeten bütünlüklü bir bağlamlar topluluğu sunmamaktadır. Kalıntılar, bir sonraki dönem olan Orta Tunç Çağı'ndakilere kıyasla cılız kalmakta ve sit alanının kenar noktalarında yer almaktadır. Vadi bu dönemde önemli yerleşimlerden neredeyse tamamen yoksun olup, bunun nedeni muhtemelen yerleşim düzeninin Orta Tunç Çağı'ndakinden hayli farklı ve/veya arkeolojik açıdan kolayca tespit edilemez nitelikte oluşudur. Bazı sit alanlarından oldukça seyrek bulgular elde edilmiş (gömütler, duvar ve zeminlerin bazı bölümleri, çanak çömlek parçaları), fakat bugün itibarıyla kayda değer herhangi bir katmana rastlanmamıştır. Gel gelelim ince katmanların kısa ve aralıklı yerleşim dönemlerine işaret etmesi mümkündür. Elbette bazı ana höyüklerin altında henüz gün ışığına çıkartılmamış kayde değer M. Ö III. binyıl yerleşimlerinin yer alma olasılığı bulunmakla birlikte, henüz bu yönde somut herhangi bir kanıt ele geçirilmemiş, Pornak ve Pir Hüseyin'deki olası geniş yerleşke buluntuları da nehir boyunca ilerleyen vadi bağlamında neredeyse fark edilmeyecek kadar ufak yerleşkelerden ibaret kırsal bir arazi şeklinde beliren genel görüntüyü değiştirecek nitelikte değildir. Muhtemelen M.Ö III. ile II. binyıl arasında geçiş döneminde vadideki yerleşke ve topluluklar, yerleşim alanlarının artması suretiyle bir yeniden yapılanma süreci yaşamış; söz konusu süreç, Yukarı Dicle bölgesinde yaşayan gerek yerleşik gerekse yerel toplumun parçası olan hareketli grupların toplumsal karmaşıklığının gelişmesini tetikleyen ve bu sayede topluluklar arasında yeni etkileşim, kontrol ve idare yöntemleri meydana getiren, niteliği henüz belirsiz fakat önemli bazı değişiklikleri takiben hayata geçmiştir. Bu dönemde, muhtemelen M.Ö III. binyıl sosyopolitik düzeninin belirgin özelliği olan gevşek köy örgütlenmelerine kıyasla daha karmaşık bir toplumsal yapı geliştirilmiştir. Örneğin Giricano, Salat Tepe, Hirbemerdon Tepe'de bulunan ve Orta Tunç Çağı'na tarihlendirilen yapılara ve birleşik mimari komplekslere ait bölümler ile benzer mimari özellikler taşıyan Kavuşan ve Üçtepe kalıntıları, muhtemelen üretim kaynakları üzerinde belirli denetim yöntemlerinin uygulandığı bir toplum planlaması düzenine ya da yerel ekonomik yaşantı yapılanmasına işaret etmekle birlikte, merkezi bir güce biat edildiğini ima etmek için yeterli bir karmaşıklık seviyesinde olmadığı görülmektedir. Yapı ve buluntular elit bir sınıfın varlığını doğrulamamakta olup, yerel ekonomi yönetimini mütevazı ölçekte organize eden ufak toplulukların varlığını ortaya koymaktadır. Söz konusu sitler arasında bir hiyerarşi olduğunu iddia etmeye yetecek bulguya sahip olmamamıza rağmen, eşgüdüm bağlamında önemli bir rol üstlendiklerini ve toplulukları kendilerine çeken, üretilen ürünlerin işlendiği, hayvancılık, tarım, avcılık ve dağlar arası ticaretten elde edilen malların depolandığı ve aynı zamanda toplumsal ve dini nitelikli eylemlerin gerçekleştirildiği önemli birer merkez teşkil ettikleri görülmektedir. Yerleşim yoğunluğundaki artış, yöreye özgü grupların sosyoekonomik anlamdaki yeniden yapılanmasının göstergesi olarak kabul edilebilir. Bu yenilenme süreci, ticari bir ağın kurulmasına ve/veya temel geçim etkinlikleri arasındaki dengede meydana gelen bir değişime ya da bölgeye yeni toplulukların gelişi gibi diğer dış etkenlere de bağlantılandırılabilir. Aynı şekilde önemli olabilecek bir başka faktör ise, aynı grup veya kabile içerisindeki iki farklı kesim, diğer bir deyişle yerleşikler (çoğunlukla çiftçi) ve seyyar (yaylacı çobanlar ve göçebeler) arasındaki ilişkinin değişmesi ve bu sayede bütünleşik bir ekonomi ile genişlemiş bir sosyo-politik düzenin gelişmesine neden olmasıdır. Şimdilik yerli toplumun gelişiminin olası nedenleri üzerine tahmin yürütmekle yetinmek zorundayız. Söz konusu iki kesim, yani aynı grup ya da kabile içerisindeki yerleşikler ve seyyarlar arasındaki ilişki ve bu ilişkinin yol açtığı bütünleşik bir ekonomi ile genişlemiş bir sosyopolitik düzenin gelişmesi olguları, Yukarı Dicle bölgesinde M.Ö III. binyılda hayat bulan yeni bir toplum yapısının temellerini teşkil etmekteydi. Daha karmaşık bir süreci basite indirgemek suretiyle zihnimizde bir senaryo canlandırmak gerekirse, bu bölgede yaşadıkları antik metinler ve modern araştırmalarca doğrulanan göçebe ya da yarı göçebe çoban gruplarının farklı gerekçelerle tarımsal etkinlikler ve köy yaşantısına geçmeye karar verdiklerini ve bu amaçla dağlar, vadiler ve stepler arasında önceleri yüzyıllar boyunca mevsimlik göç ve yaylacılık çerçevesinde yararlandıkları alanlardan birine yerleşmeyi seçtiklerini; grubun diğer kısmının ise sürülerle geleneksel rotaları izleyerek ilerledikleri ve yerleşik topluluklarla etkileşime devam ettiklerini düşünmek mümkündür. Eldeki mevcut yazılı belgeler yetersiz olup, güney şehir devletleriyle etkileşim ve ticaret ağlarına katılım yöntemlerinin belirlenmesine henüz imkan sağlamamaktadır. Yerel toplulukların sosyal ve ekonomik yapılarının yeniden düzenlenmesi olgusu Orta Tunç Çağı toplumlarının belirgin bir özelliği olarak öne çıkmakta; nitekim söz konusu toplumların önce M.Ö II. binyıl ve takiben M.Ö I. binyıl boyunca yerel niteliklerine sıkıca bağlı kaldıkları ya da güney imparatorluklarının sabit sömürgeleştirme girişimleri ve baskılarına rağmen, zaman zaman Anadolu'nun doğusuna yöneldikleri görülmektedir. Bu durumun toplumsal ve tarihsel değerinin önemli çıkarımlarından birine, yerel toplumun farklı unsurları ve üyelerinin bu arkeolojik arazi kapsamında üstlendikleri roller üzerinden ulaşmak mümkündür. Oluşturduğumuz taslak doğru ise, M.Ö III. binyıla tarihlendirilen sitlerin azlığı ya da başka bir ifadeyle bu yerleşim alanlarının sınırlı görünürlükte oluşlarının, dengesiz bir yerleşme düzenine işaret ediyor olabilir. Zira nüfusun büyük bir kısmı, bölge şartlarına en iyi uyum gösterme yöntemi olarak seyyar, yarı göçmen ya da göçmen bir yaşam tarzını tercih etmiştir. Yukarı Dicle vadisi örneğinde ise, sistemin karmaşıklaşması ve yerel toplumdaki dönüşümün tetiklenmesinde ticaret ağlarının mı yoksa yerel gruplar arasındaki belki de Akkadların bölgedeki etkilerini artırmaları sonucu doğan dinamiklerin mi etkili olduğunu sorgulamamız mümkündür. Vadi, maddi kültürü ve özellikle de çanak çömlek geleneği açısından kendisini çevreleyen diğer bölgelerden ayrılan bir niteliğe sahiptir. Aslında Dicle kültürünün kendine has ve özel konumu, birçok yüzyıl boyunca metinsel herhangi bir ize rastlanmaması, Mezopotamyalıların bölgeyi kontrol altına almakta yaşadıkları zorluklar ve maddi kalıntıların özellikleri, bu alanın iyi tanımlanmış ve belirgin bir kültürel ve belki de siyasi oluşuma ev sahipliği yaptığını düşündürmekte ve bunun bağlantılı olarak, kırmızı-kahverengi seramiklerin varlığı ile karakterize edilen yerleşkelerin gelişiminden de anlaşıldığı üzere, M.Ö III. binyılda gerçekleşen değişimlere de yön verdiği ihtimalini güçlendirmektedir. Yukarı Dicle'deki kazılarda gün ışığına çıkartılan kalıntıların Hurri medeniyetinin doğrudan bir ifadesi olarak kabul edilip edilemeyeceği ise, şimdilik ilginç fakat metinsel kanıtların yokluğunda ispat edilemeyecek bir varsayımın ötesine geçememektedir. Ancak Yukarı Dicle bölgesinde yakın dönemde yürütülen araştırmalar, M.Ö. III. binyılın sonu ile M.Ö. II. binyılın başı arasında Anadolu'nun güneydoğusunda yaşayan ve Antik Yakın Doğu'nun tarihsel arka planı kapsamında henüz tam anlamıyla belirlenememiş de olsa önemli bir rol oynayan toplulukların daha iyi tanımlanabilmeleri adına yeni ve önemli bazı kanıtlar elde edilmesini sağlamıştır. ; La regione attraversata dal corso superiore del fiume Tigri, in Turchia sud-orientale, è stata per molto tempo un'area poco conosciuta dal punto di vista archeologico. L'intensificarsi delle ricerche sul campo, a partire dagli anni novanta del secolo scorso, ha prodotto le evidenze su cui basare una prima ricostruzione della storia dell'insediamento e della cultura materiale di questi territori, tra le alte terre anatolico-orientali e le pianure mesopotamiche. I risultati degli scavi e le ricognizioni indicano che tra la fine del Bronzo Antico e l'inizio del Bronzo Medio giunge a maturazione un processo di trasformazione e riorganizzazione delle comunità locali. La comparsa di ampi complessi architettonici ed edifici in siti di medio-piccole dimensioni, caratterizzati da un particolare repertorio di oggetti e da ceramiche rosso-brune, potrebbe nascondere la formazione di realtà socio-politiche più strutturate rispetto a quelle del periodo precedente ed essere espressione di quel mondo khurrita che avrebbe avuto proprio nella regione del Tigri, secondo le ricostruzioni storiche, una delle zone di insediamento principale. ; The Upper Tigris region represents an important area within the mountainous system of south-eastern Anatolia and its relevance is related to its geographical position that plays a role in connecting the Mesopotamian lowlands to both northern and eastern Anatolian areas. Archaeological researches carried out during the last thirty years along the upper course of the Tigris river have provided new important evidence for the definition of a local cultural horizon and a large corpus of data that may be used to clarify chronological divisions and synchronism within the region itself and beyond. The aim of this book is to investigate the results of the recent archaeological activities concerning the final part of the Early and the Middle Bronze Age. Starting from a detailed analysis of the published data, central issues concerning settlements, stratigraphy, architecture, pottery, regional links, and chronology have been treated. The region of the Upper Tigris river, north of the Ṭūr ʿAbdīn hills and at the foot of the high south-eastern Anatolian mountains, show a coherent picture in terms of archaeological evidence. Surveys and excavations have documented that an important occupational period of the valley should be dated back to the end of the 3rd and the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, when mainly small sized settlements tend to be established on the river terraces on the edge of the Tigris floodplain and along the main river tributaries. Many of them are characterized by large buildings or architectural complexes and the presence of a typical ceramic assemblage which appears to be distinct from the other contemporaneous ceramic traditions of the neighbouring regions. The assemblage of pottery, mainly red-brown slipped and painted wares, is important for the definition of a local horizon and for the identification of intersite cultural connections in the upper Tigris region. The ubiquity of pots sherds, essentially representing the bulk of what we found in the field, make them currently the basis of this investigation. In the particular case of the Upper Tigris, area of recent investigation, the pottery is remarkable when compared with other categories of finds and their presence, not only in stratified contexts but also on the surface of non-excavated sites, makes one of the most reliable tools for characterizing the material production of this specific geographical area and interpreting wider features of the cultural development in the Upper Tigris. A part a brief geographical and historical introduction (Chapter 1), the core of the book is represented by the results of the archaeological researches in the region and their analysis (Chapters 2 and 4). Surveyed areas and the excavated sites are the subjects of the second chapter (Chapter 2) that provides also the current state of the art for our archaeological knowledge. An important contribution is offered by the excavations at Hirbemerdon Tepe and to this site is dedicated the Chapter 3 where is reasoned argument of the archaeological context (3.2) with its phases of occupation and associated pottery (3.4), mainly unpublished. Much space is given to the classification of pottery sherds (3.3) both in technological and morphological terms and the analysis of spatial and diachronic occurrence of wares and types. Also main small findings are interpreted and contextualized in the regional and chronological frameworks (3.5). Our primary source of information for a detailed analysis of the pottery is the architectural complex, discovered on the mound of Hirbemerdon Tepe but also the evidence from other soundings opened on the site. The first excavations campaigns (2005-2007) carried out at Hirbermerdon Tepe, on the right bank of Tigris river, yielded good archaeological contexts and a conspicuous amount of pottery and artefacts mainly dating back to the first part of the 2nd millennium BC. Providing a new set of stratified data, Hirbemerdon Tepe offers an important contribution to defining the cultural profile of the Upper Tigris valley area. The excavations provided us with a sequence of three main ceramic phases, each individuated by morphological and technological attributes (3.6). The early phase (Fase 1), dating to the end of the Early Bronze Age, approximately to Early Bronze Age III-IV (end of Early Jazirah III-V), is characterized by the presence of an early version of RBWW and DROB; the middle phase (Fase 2), dated to the Middle Bronze Age, is characterized mainly by RBWW and band painted ware. The last phase (Fase 3) comprises a mixed assemblage with RBWW types of MBA date and others in common ware together with some Khabur and Nuzi sherds of Late Bronze Age date. It is not ascertained that at Hirbemerdon exists RBWW of LBA date. A section is dedicated to discuss the pottery repertoire, its technological and morphological characteristics, and in the regional context (3.7), comparing data with those from other sites and regions in order to underline the relationship between the local ceramic horizon and those of the neighbours. The end of the chapter concerns remarks on the regional periodization and propose a date for the repertoire. Chapter 4 offers general remarks about the settlement developments, architecture, pottery and significative small finds recovered in the Upper Tigris region. According to the results of this study, based on the published data currently available and the evidence from Hirbemerdon Tepe, the rise of the local Middle Bronze Age culture has to be dated to the passage between the 3rd and the 2nd millennium. The floruit of the Upper Tigris communities has to be dated to the period between the 19th and 17th centuries that coincides with the main phase of production of the red-brown slipped/painted pottery. A common pottery horizon is widely recognizable in the Upper Tigris region, marked specifically by the presence of categories known as Red Brown Wash Ware (RBWW), Red Brown Burnished Ware (RBBW), Dark Rimmed Orange Bowls/Ware (DROB/DROW) and Band Painted Ware (BD) which are characterized by a layer of red/brown slips used to cover, entirely or partially, the surface of the pot and to decorate it. Parallels of single components of the pottery shape are geographically widespread, encompassing the Upper Euphrates in Anatolia and Syria, the Balikh area, the Upper Khabur and the northern Iraqi lowlands, sometimes the Anatolian highlands, but the particular surface treatment is a specific local characteristic and has to be considered as a distinctive expression of the Tigris valley culture. The high percentage of red-brown slipped and painted wares suggests that a proper ceramic region existed between the South-Eastern Taurus fringes and the Ṭūr ʿAbdīn uplands, south-west of the Van mountain system, resting firmly within a local tradition. Red-brown wares (DROB/DROW, RBWW, BD) are products of the same manufacturing tradition, centred on the Tigris river area. It is likely that the DROB were out of use at the beginning of 2nd millennium, a part some marginal exceptions, whereas the RBWW continued for the entire span of the Middle Bronze Age and probably until the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. The Tigris pottery assemblage experienced the effects of different influxes, from the Euphrates area and to the Jazirah, with a period of major interaction and others of less intensive contacts. In conclusion, Chapter 5 explores the social and cultural value of the homogeneity in material culture within the Tigris region, suggesting the existence of a communal organization maybe connected with political entities. The sites characterised by red-brown wares represent evidence of cultural continuity between the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. It may be assumed that at a certain point a transformation of the local social and political system occurres, with the conversion to a new settlement pattern organized around little sites with multifunctional buildings and this change is also identified by the growth of settled sites producing red-brown pottery, like DROBs and principally RBWW. Not much can be said as regards the end of the Early Bronze Age period. Findings and strata of the second half of 3rd millennium or dating to the last centuries have been exposed at few sites but none provides a clear stratigraphic sequence or fairly well articulated contexts. In general, the remains are poor compared with those of the following Middle Bronze Age and cover marginal areas of the site. The valley was almost devoid of significant settlements during this period, probably because the settlement pattern was substantially different from the Middle Bronze Age pattern and/or not easily recognizable archeologically. Some sites produced very sparse evidence (tombs, portion of walls and floors, pot-sherds) but no substantial layers have been found up to now. In fact the thin layers could indicate brief and intermittent periods of occupation. Of course there might have been considerable 3rd millennium sites not yet excavated beneath some of the major and important mounds but as yet there is no evidence for them and the possible finding of large settlements in Pornak and Pir Hüseyin do not change the general picture of a rural landscape with evanescent presence of very small sites, as for the valley along the river. Probably during the passage between the 3rd and 2nd millennium there was a reorganization of settlements and populations in the valley with an increase of settled sites, after important but unclear changes in the whole region that stimulated the growth of the social complexity among the groups inhabiting the Upper Tigris, both sedentary and mobile segments of local society, producing new forms of interaction between the communities, control and management of the resources. In this period a social structure more complex than loose village organizations that probably characterized the sociopolitical landscape of the 3rd millennium was developed. The portions of buildings and composite architectural complexes, dating to the Middle Bronze Age, found for example at Giricano, Salat Tepe, Hirbemerdon Tepe, but also the remains of Kavuşan and Üçtepe showing similar architectural features, suggest a community planning with the possible existence of a form of control over productive resources or organization of the local economic life, but not a level of complexity implying the subordination to a centralizing power. Architecture and artifacts do not confirm the presence of elites but indicate small communities organizing the management of local economy on a modest scale. We do not have elements to recognize a hierarchy between these sites yet but it seems that these played a role of coordination and were centers of attraction for populations; for processing products and storing commodities coming from herds, agriculture, hunting and intermountain trade as well as for communal and ritual performances. The growing of settlement density can be considered as an indicator of a socio-economic reorganization of indigenous groups. This regenerative process can be linked to the establishment of a commercial network and/or to a change in the balance between main subsistence activities or to other external stimuli as the arrival of newcomers. Not less important could have been the changing relation between the two segments, settled (mainly farmers) and mobile (transhumant shepherds and nomads) of the same group or tribe, developing an integrated economy and an enlarged socio-political system, At present we can only speculate about what the development of the indigenous society holds. The relation between these two segments, settled and mobile of the same group or tribe, developing an integrated economy and an enlarged socio-political system, was at the base of a new society inaugurated at the end of the 3rd millennium in the Upper Tigris. It is possible to imagine a scenario, simplifying a more complex process, where groups of shepherds, nomadic or semi-nomadic, who have lived in this area as ancient texts and modern studies confirm, decided to convert to agricultural activities and village life, for different motives, settling in one of the areas that for centuries they had used during the seasonal migrations and transhumance between mountains, valleys and steppes; whereas the other part of the group continued to bring herds along traditional routes interacting with the sedentary communities. The available textual documentation is meager and does not permit to establish yet the modalities of interaction with the southern city states as well as the involvement within commercial circuits. This new organization of the social and economic structure of the local community is a trait of the Middle Bronze Age society that in the course of the 2nd millennium and then during the 1st millennium, will keep firmly a local character or will be occasionally oriented towards eastern Anatolia in spite of the pressure and attempts at stable colonization by southern empires. An important implication of social and historical significance is involved in the role assumed by the different components and members of the local society in this archaeological landscape. If this outline is correct, the scarcity of sites dated to the 3rd millennium or otherwise, the low visibility of these settlements, might point to unstable occupation: a mobile, semi-nomadic or nomadic style of life was for most of the population the best adaptation to the surrounding regional environment. We can question if in the case of the Upper Tigris river valley it has been the trade network to generate the rise of complexity or dynamics internal to local groups (maybe stimulated after the Akkadians established their influence over the region) have had been more effective to prompt the transformation of local society. The valley represents a distinct unit from the surrounding regions with regard to its material culture and particularly its pottery tradition. Actually, the particular setting of Tigris culture, the lack of textual records for several centuries, the difficulties met by Mesopotamians to control these territories, and the characteristics of the material remains could suggest that the area was a place of a well-defined cultural and maybe political entity and resulting in the changes at the end of 3rd millennium that we can recognize in the growth of the settlements characterized by the presence of red-brown ceramics. If the archaeological remains emerged through the excavation in the Upper Tigris have to be considered direct expression of the Khurrian world is at the moment an intriguing hypothesis that in absence of textual evidence cannot be demonstrated. However the results of the recent research in the Upper Tigris provide new fundamental evidence for a better definition of the communities inhabiting the south-eastern Anatolia between the end of 3rd and the beginning of 2nd mill. BC that played an important, yet poorly defined role within the historical scenario of the Ancient Near East.

La parte central de este trabajo es la integración escolar de las personas con discapacidad en Italia, en el marco legislativo de los modelos teóricos y conceptuales que históricamente la han explicado. El discurso sobre la integración se inscribe después de casi cincuenta años de la Ley nº. 118/1971, la cual estableció de manera innovadora un precedente en la tradición pedagógica de mi país para todos los estudiantes con discapacidad: la educación obligatoria debe tener lugar en las clases comunes de las escuelas públicas (art. 28). De este modo Italia comenzó a mostrar en la escena mundial su modelo de integración escolar, caracterizado por la plena participación de los alumnos con discapacidad en el sistema educativo de educación y formación, sin trayectorias separadas de las ordinarias. En vista de esta ley, el proceso evolutivo no se ha detenido, es más, ha progresado en gran medida. Así que después de la primera parte, donde se presenta el marco histórico-cultural internacional, y en la que se expone el concepto de discapacidad y de trastorno del espectro autista, sigue una visión general de la legislación en materia de integración escolar en Italia que ha intentado abrir las puertas a la comprensión del carácter específico italiano. Tras una primera etapa representada por la Ley 118/1971 que regula la inserción de las personas con discapacidad en el entorno educativo, un segundo paso decisivo ha sido la Ley nº. 517/1977, que ha especificado el principio de integración. Este modelo ha anticipado varios años lo que a nivel internacional se destacaría después en la Conferencia de Salamanca (7 - 10 de junio de 1995) y en la Convención de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad, adoptada por la Asamblea General de la ONU el 13 de diciembre 2006, que compromete a todos los Estados firmantes a considerar formas de integración escolar en las clases comunes. Este paradigma es el punto de referencia de la Ley n° 104/1992, que ha dictado "los principios del ordenamiento en materia de derechos, integración social y asistencia de las personas con discapacidad" (art. 2), y que establece la cooperación necesaria entre la escuela y los servicios sociales y sanitarios del territorio, haciéndose sentir sus efectos hasta nosotros. Finalmente, se muestra la organización de la red regional de apoyo a la integración escolar con los mecanismos que se han sucedido a lo largo de la evolución legislativa. Por último, el resultado de una investigación cualitativa y cuantitativa llevada a cabo en la escuela primaria de la ciudad de Palermo, mediante la administración de cuestionarios de autorreporte (self-report), pero también haciendo uso de las cualificadas opiniones del Ministro de Educación y del Subsecretario de Estado para la salud y de otros representantes institucionales escuchados en calidad de observadores privilegiados, se ha expuesto el método de aplicación de la integración escolar de niños con trastorno del espectro autista en el contexto local de Palermo, bajo la mirada de los padres, de los profesores y de los directores de centros educativos. Siguiendo el ejemplo de la investigación llevada a cabo en las escuelas de la ciudad de Palermo, habida cuenta de los marcos teóricos previamente descritos, ha sido posible exponer y profundizar el marco existente, discutir los elementos críticos surgidos del sistema legislativo previsto para la integración y la inclusión escolar de las personas con discapacidad, especialmente de los alumnos con trastorno del espectro autista, y valorar los posibles remedios para un mejor enfoque de la esfera de la discapacidad grave. ; The heart of the present work is scholastic integration of disabled persons in Italy in the legislative framework of the theoretical-conceptual models that historically have dealt with it. The reflection on integration is taking place almost fifty years after the passing of Law 118/1971, which in an innovative way created a landmark in the pedagogic tradition of my country for all disabled students: compulsory education must take place in normal classes at state schools (art. 28). In this way Italy began to manifest on the world scene its model of scholastic integration, marked by full participation of disabled pupils in the education and training system, without education of disabled people being separate from ordinary education. In the light of this law the evolutionary process has not stopped, and indeed it has advanced considerably. Therefore after a first part, in which the international historical-cultural framework is introduced and in which the concept of disability and disorders of the autistic spectrum is illustrated, there follows an overview of the legislation on scholastic integration in Italy that tries to open the doors to an understanding of Italian specificities. After a first stage represented by Law 118/1971 aiming at insertion of disabled people in schools, a second decisive passage was Law 517/1977, which specified the principle of integration. This model came quite a few years ahead of what at the international level was then underlined with the Salamanca conference (7-10 June 1995) and with the UN convention on the rights of people with disabilities approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 13 December 2006, which committed all the signatory states to introducing forms of scholastic integration in ordinary classes. This paradigm is the reference point of Law 104/1992, which laid down "the principles of the framework on the subject of rights, social integration and assistance of the handicapped person" (art. 2) and specified the necessary collaborations between school and the social and health services of the territory, making its effects felt down to our day. The organization of the territorial assistance network was finally illustrated for scholastic integration with the orders that followed one another in legislative evolution. Lastly, the fruit of qualitative and quantitative research carried out in primary schools in the city of Palermo through the administration of self-report questionnaires, but also drawing on some qualified opinions of the Minister of Education and the Undersecretary of State for Health and other representatives of institutions consulted as privileged observatories, there was illustrated, with parents, teachers and scholastic executives looking on, the modality of realization of scholastic integration of children with disorders of the autistic spectrum in the territory of Palermo. Taking hints from the research conducted at schools in the city of Palermo in the light of the theoretical frameworks previously delineated, it was possible to illustrate and extend the current picture, to discuss the critical aspects of the planned legislative system for integration and scholastic inclusion of disabled persons and particularly of pupils with disorders of the autistic spectrum, and to appraise the possible remedies for a better perspective on the sphere of serious disabilities. The hope is that this work can contribute to driving away the risk, particularly for disabled people, of experiencing bitter "loneliness", even precisely because of those people who declare they are and want to be – at the level of daily proximity, in the professional or institutional context – true "friends." Considering that disability and the theme of personal diversity are more a question of civilization than a legal one, the hope is that we will never see, in any context and in any form, what Milan Kundera said: "A man is condemned to loneliness not by his enemies but by his friends ." La esperanza es que este trabajo pueda ayudar a evitar y a alejar el riesgo, especialmente para las personas con discapacidad, de vivir una "soledad" amarga, tal vez precisamente a causa de quienes se declaran y quieren ser - a nivel de proximidad cotidiana, en el contexto profesional o institucional, - "amigos" de verdad. Dado que la discapacidad y el tema de las diferencias personales son más una cuestión de civilización que de tipo jurídico, la esperanza es que nunca se haga realidad, en todos los contextos y en todas las formas, lo que decía Milan Kundera: "Para condenar a un hombre a la soledad no están sus enemigos, sino sus amigos".

The twentieth century (characterized by the gruesome and haze of horror of two World Wars, the Cold Wars-CW, dictatorships, civil wars, genocides, etc.) has seen a great transformation in warfare but to the expense of the innocent civilians and yet in the full view of regulatory internationally recognized war-laws. So, if at one point in history, civilian populations hardly suffered war directly, the order of the state of affairs has now changed. Many civilians perish simply because warlords so desire; extremes of violence, killings and destruction of property is predominantly preferred. As if that is not enough, the indifference of the majority of the public in tranquil zones of the world towards the fate of the civilians in zones under by fire kind of provide implicit licenses to violence planners to do whatever it takes to "win". Consequently, great numbers of survivors are seen trying to escape from situations of assured death to that of probable death. It is against this background that we feel moved to take on this dissertation. Bearing in mind the generally complex and challenging contemporary conflicts that acutely breeds volatile security environments (for civilians), our thesis is that there needed to be an increased, noteworthy and continued applicable innovation of approaches to civilian protection. To be precise, as a strategy to sustainable peace, we have aspired after a world where the United Nations Peacekeeping Department (UNPKD) is not singly considered the sole custodian of the concept of civilian protection but (based on contexts and cases) as one but a leader among other stakeholders (local and foreign) able and ready to contribute to the common-pool of operational arenas. Thinking about these other stake holders, we have in this work stood by those that: firstly, move towards more civilian-centered operations that are; secondly, carried out by (a mixture of grassroots and international) unarmed civilians by means of; thirdly, engages nonviolent approaches and practices that in themselves anticipate the basic constituents of successive bottom-up Peacemaking (PK) and Peacebuilding (PB) in the hic et nunc of their Peacekeeping (PK) initiatives and applications. All these basics, in our view, do not just add up to drawing a continuous line that intersects the just mentioned Three Approaches to Peace (PK, PM, PB) coined by Johan Galtung way back in 1975; they also open avenues to sustainability. The thesis is taken on through three different parts; each subdivided into two chapters. With due attention to intrastate contemporary violent conflicts, the first part tries to demonstrate the reason why in PK there has been indeed need for rethinking the protection of civilians (PoC) and/or for enriching the methods until now employed in bringing it about. In the first chapter of the part, we kind of gave a sketchy attention to the historical journey that the patterns of violent conflicts in relation to the fate of non-combatants have made. It emerges that, unlike in the past, the pattern of contemporary violent conflict, especially with reference to the CW (especially in third-world countries) and post-CW periods, have become severely complex to handle. Wars have continued and proved to be very hot especially on the populations on the periphery; on those who are minimally directly concerned with and honestly ignorant of its objectives. In the period in question, these innocent men, women and children are more than ever struck hard not just by its direct consequences but also the indirect ones and their hopes are constantly put at the brink of mere survival and of the grave. Mores so the lucky ones who manage to escape these snares, continue to unwaveringly hope for bread, freedom, justice and peace, instead of iron that kills and destroys. In chapter II of the same part, looking at the commitments borne by the UN right from its early years in keeping, initially, the interstate and successively also the intrastate peace (of those tormented by reign of violence and terror), we acknowledge the strides gradually taken along the years. These strides has better late than never embraced a multidimensional point in time where civilian protection counts as a primacy. Accordingly, we recognize that the UN military PK is certainly capable of reducing the level of tension in conflicts but we also negated that, by so doing, it is able to guarantee a durable peace not only because of the application of the non-peaceful means which is limited to separating the conflicting parties but also because it lacks the strategic concern of fostering an active citizenship which is a basic ingredient to democratic populace. In Part Two, we have concentrated on the vision and the peculiar picture of the practitioners of the alternative way, particularly; the Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) which operates on a benchmark of bottom-up strategic empowerment of local civilian unarmed and nonviolent efforts by international unarmed and nonviolent civilians to protect civilians, prevent, reduce and stop violent conflicts. The first chapter of this second part begins by singling out some of the nuts and bolts (Like: The centrality of sustainability; strategic, local and multilevel capacity and relational empowerment and mediation for peace; conflict transformation as the adequate language; nonviolence and nonpartisanship as a philosophy) that make Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) stands out faithfully to the above stated aspirations. Without giving importance to the chronological specifics and with a particular reference to the assessment of the practicality of the project that, on a later date, would organizationally become the NP, an extensive attention is paid to the vicissitudes that surrounded the founding of this UCP protection agency and especially to the foundations of the formative elements entailed. Chapter II does not only build on the findings and stimuli of Chapter I, it supersedes it and makes real a new and distinct reality. Herein, a unique place is devoted to the formative components reserved to the practitioners as a strategy for guaranteeing the competencies and high professionalism needed for the successful execution of field strategies attached to the NP UCP objectives, principles, key methods and practices. Through the analysis of the UCP Training Course entitled "Strengthening Civilian Capacities to Protect Civilians; A joint UNITAR- Nonviolent Peaceforce online Course" the chapter tries to show how the activities of the organization intrinsically flow from its very being; from elements which define it. And this is illustrated in how the very life of the NP UCP is blended with its formative spirit and content; a sort of transformative training that seeks to promote transformative operational frameworks that applicable to situations and contexts. The third part of the work is an applied one. It is dedicated to our chosen case study, namely, NP's intervention in the longtime violence-stricken Republic of South Sudan; in a country which (Thomas Hobbes would say) has once again reverted to its natural state; a harsh reality of hand to mouth living and a never ending search for sustenance in an ambiance virtually challenging to change. In chapter I, the pragmatic implementation of NP UCP in strengthening the local civilians' capacity, security and sense of safety in situation of violent conflict is marked out. Here, some concrete instances of this intervention are presented to exemplify the claim that a multiple base of actors (UCPs, the inviting civil society and/or local NGOs of an UCP presence and local partners) can sustainably and strategically provide the PoC work that for a long time was and is still largely entrusted to the military. And at the end of the day PK, PM, PB resources are considered to consist in not only financial and material supports, but also, and (in the same way) importantly, the socio-cultural resources of the affected people. And in this way people in conflict settings are seen as resources rather than recipients. Even though we evidently confirmed that the alternative way counts exceptionally big in strategically promoting, developing, and implementing sustainable unarmed civilian PK as a tool for preventing, reducing and stopping violence and protecting civilians in situations of violent conflict, we also acknowledge that it is not without challenges. These are actually what chapter two of the part extensively dwells on. The second chapter is instead dedicated (at length) to looking at the challenges that NP faces not only with regard to its missions lands but also in general. We have gone about this in the form of a comprehensive assessment and in some humble recommendations are advanced. Among these challenges we have particularly paid attention to issues like: The meager UCP funding and the dominant top-down mentality; the violent bully character of some major world power wielders; the need for more practitioners to carry out UCP; the dynamicity and complexity of conflict nature as a challenge; conflict prevention challenges like delays in capturing the signs of time so as to effectively intervene; the presence of spoilers as a challenge; the challenge of effective sustainable credibility. Recommendations proposed include among others: Investing in systematic reflections on the extent of the progress and failures so far registered in efforts to involve the UN, regional bodies and other donor agencies or individuals in the cause of NP (UCP) and reflecting on the philosophy that underpins the reasons why financial assistance to UCP and NP in particular is founded; more emphasis on the already existing engagement with political leaders and other influential people and embarking on popular campaigns to propagate a concretely evidenced knowledge of the feasibility of the alternative way, instituting and investing in "School Project" (dedicated to preferably to high schools) within the NP Advocacy and Outreach office and insisting on the positives of volunteers' contribution; enriching a little more the content of the just elaborated online UCP training course; etc. Hereafter, the general conclusion of our dissertation will be drawn. A profound acknowledgement of the UNPK pivotal role with its actual multidimensional fronts in PK basically intended as PoC specifically in the contemporary intrastate violent conflicts. It is also observed that, thanks to the appropriate blending of local and international capacities giving priority to the former, UCP's strategic approach to PK (which is not limited to the PoCs but is also anchored to preventing, reducing and ending not just those that are already on but also lays for standing up to the future possible ones) could be counted on. Thus far, it is on one hand, admissible that, despite all the challenges that there may be, NP (UCP) mechanisms is already proffering a great deal to this end, and on the other, it is evident that it can and should still do more. The ability of its interventions to stand the test of time and to stand up to the future conflicts (i.e. its sustainability) resides in a time which is not yet at hand and in the continuous involvement and inventiveness of many. As per now, if the Italian proverb "Il buongiorno si vede dal mattino" (Meaning: You can tell how something will go by how it begins) holds, then it is, up till now, realistic to count on NP as one of the most outstanding Bottom-up UCP organizations in the PoC in (selected) contemporary violent conflict situations. All that is needed is the building and the consolidation of international interest and support for UCP that presents the hope and reality of alternatives to over dependence on armed intervention; alternatives that chances the revitalization of local communities and the restoration of the social fabrics and capital of the affected people.

The Human Rights topic is increasing its relevance in the field of legal studies and in the agenda of inter/transnational actors. The Sociology of Law is deeply engaged in this dialogue, but some of its contributions seem to share a common lack of concern about the dimensions of cultural legitimacy and politics of imagination. Refusing the "simplistic" vision of «legal transplants», the approach in term of regionalization and the genealogical theories (i.e. the so called generations of human rights), the thesis aims to outline a multidisciplinary frame, trying to merge the anthropological and the socio-legal knowledge to shed light on the «anthropologies of human rights». The use of the plural suggests several orders of realities: firstly, it reflects the high fragmentation which characterizes the epistemological and methodological debate of contemporary anthropology, as a disciplinary field. An "internal" multiplication of points of view which becomes even more striking in its interactions whit the HR subject and its own kind of internal dissemination. Secondly (and consequently), it enlightens that the "pluralisation" of human rights discourse could be better understood as a proliferation of world-visions and axiologies. In this second meaning, the summoned «anthropologies» have to be intended in term of theories on human beings, on social reality and social order, shaped by cultural assumptions, taken-for-granted and (shared) symbolical repertoires. Deeply merged within every manifestation of the «humanitarian transnational narration», these world-versions need to be studied as sources of influence and inspiration for legal claims, texts and declarations that build the corpus of international humanitarian law. Lastly, this plurality which stems from the relationship between the macro-narrative of the International Bill of Human Rights and its situated appropriations points out the potentiality of a cultural analysis of the social life of (human) rights in avoiding the dichotomist models (universalism versus relativism, global versus local and so on) in favor of a representation in term of narrative encounters between different conceptions of human dignity, human beings, normative orders and social realities. To grasp this mutual and multilayered overlapping, the first part of the thesis builds an analytical framework destined to be applied, in the second part, to the specific context of the «African system of human rights». This choice was dictated by the peculiarities which seem to distinguish it from others regional systems: amongst these features, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights deserves a special place, considered its aspects of relevant innovation and creativity as well its signs of criticism and its lack of real efficacy. In the first chapter we start from the general liaison between Law and Culture, looking for a «relational paradigm» which rejects determinist or reductionist presentations of this organic link. Adopting a pluralist point of view (centered on the idea of «normative pluralism» preferred to the classical one in term of «legal pluralism»), we borrow some insights from early anthropological researches on «primitive law» and on the co-existence of plural normative orders in colonial settings. The second chapter deals with the concept of «legal culture», trying to discuss a cardinal notion of sociology of law that often pretend to exhaustively grasp the complexity of law/culture nexus. We explore the richness and the pitfalls of influent theorizations about this topic, sorting out three dimensions which seem to require a deeper engagement: the power, the (construction of the) collective identities and the pluralism. In strict dialogue with the studies on «legal consciousness» and «legal socialization», we move towards a textual description of culture. The third chapter sketches a theory of culture in term of cognitive and normative interface between men and the meaningful world they try to create (and to live in). Borrowing from Clifford Geertz the fundamental ideas about the «social traffic of meanings», the textual dimension of cultures and the law as a way of world-making – or better, of imaging the reality –, we keep developing our model in a more comprehensive perspective which dismisses the "literary" constraints entrenched in the idea of «text». The forth chapter deals with some assumptions of the so-called «narrative paradigm», trying to "dissolve" the persisting rigidities of the textual frame into a larger and (more) universal human ability: the narrative competence. We examine the coalescence between narrative attitude and normative attitude, stressing the similarities and the constitutive power of both of them. Starting from narration as a meta-model for the social construction of reality, we move towards the specificities of «legal narration» as expression of the legal construction of social reality. This narrative standpoint can be synthesized as follow: the human skill to produce, to understand and to manipulate tales (and other sources of narrative production) is the key that ensures the transmission and the socializations of cultural meanings, representations and symbols. Trough the narrativization of culture it becomes easier to conceive the narrativization of legal cultures as shared, contested, polyphonic repertories of legal and social ideas. In the fifth chapter we start applying our theoretical framework to the human rights topic. We begin with a preliminary set of issues regrouped under the label of «spatial problematic». It underlines the paradox of the Universalist project, with its claims of cultural independence and planetary applicability on the one hand, and the need of cultural resonance and local relevance on the other. We explore critical contributions about the «globalization talk», which stress some traps of this overriding way of representing social and socio-legal phenomena in the contemporary world. Aiming to reject monodimensional explanations, we merge the «rhetoric of flaws» with the sensibility for «friction events» generated by and trough the encounters between transnational narratives and specific local (and cultural) settings. The concept of «vernacularization» helps us to conceive these interactions/intersections between global flows and punctual frictions. The sixth chapter introduces the main elements of the African context, starting from a sketched portrait of what we define its «radical normative pluralism». In order to cope with the complex reality of the African human rights system, we outline a historical (and political) description of the events that preceded the creation of the Organization for the African Unity, the institutional body which had the main responsibility in the consolidation of the system itself. We also examine various "legal" precedents (the so-called Lagos Law, the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples and so on) which influenced the elaboration of the African Charter with their moral and political authority. Whit the seventh chapter we finally land the heart of our topic: the narrative analysis of the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights. After a quick identification of the focal features of the document, we approach the meaningful core of the Charter: the organic/holistic relationship between individual human rights and collective dimension of peoples' (human) rights. We split our investigation in two different but related paths: the individual/people pole and the rights/duties pole, assuming they are two dissimilar strategies to arrange this underlying "cohabitation". We also draw to several pronunciations of the African Commission of human and peoples' rights exploring the potential meanings of people and peoples' rights to clarify the official/institutional position on the subject. Anthropological and sociological studies on the ongoing modifications of collective frames of reference (the family, the ethnic group and other strategies of kinship allegiance) in contemporary Africa are employed to complete our inquiry. In the eighth chapter we (temporary) leave the African Charter in favor of other documents and protocols produced by the African system, strictly related to the «culture variable»: the Pan-African Cultural Manifesto, the Cultural Charter for Africa and the Charter for African Cultural Renaissance. After that, we approach three other texts more engaged on the promotion and protection of human rights for specific categories of people: the African Charter on the rights and welfare of the child, the Protocol to the African Charter on human and peoples' rights on the rights of women in Africa and the African Youth Charter. Our aim is to show how cultural assumptions about the subjects concerned shape or influence the normative prescriptions designed to protect them. The ninth chapter, finally, outlines a general evaluation of our analytical model trough the exploration of its weakness and its points of strength. It shows the hermeneutical advantages provided by the «gius-narrative» key, which enabled us to trace and emphasize the links between myths and foundational narratives of social groups and theirs normative constructions. It also stresses the need for a cultural study of social life of human rights, to (try to) grasp the many faces that the struggle for human rights is showing in its continuous spread around the world.

Maritime piracy is still one of the most interesting manifestations of human activity by reason of the fact that it has, directly or indirectly, a number of points of contact between different problems of social, religious, political, economical and, of course, historical matter. Specifically, South-east Asia is a great example of how history, politics and religion are strongly and crucially imbued with the maritime banditry phenomenology. During the era of great maritime political entities exercising dominion along the Malay and Indonesian coasts, predation assumed character of endemicity going to fit firmly within the society, politics and economy networks. Inside Zhu Pan Zhi, the reports of the Song Dynasty about the barbarian peoples, is it possible to read about the piracy in the Great Southern Ocean (Nanyang) «the foreign ships were often attacked by pirates. The captives were the favourite of pirates, one captive can sell for 2 liang or 3 liang gold, the piracy prevents the merchants from visiting the ports» . Of great interest it is also the description of piracy in waters near Singapore (Temasek) and south of the straits that, in 1349, appeared in these terms: «The Dragon-teeth Strait (longyamen) is between the two hills of Temasek barbarians, which look like dragon's teeth'. Through the centre runs a waterway. The fields are barren and rice harvest is poor. The climate is hot with heavy rain in April and May. The inhabitants are addicted to piracy […] when junks sail to the European Ocean (Indian Ocean), the local barbarians allow them to pass unmolested, but when the junks reach the Auspicious Strait (Jilimen) on their return voyages, some 200-300 pirate prahus (boats) will put out to attack the junks for several days, the crew of junks have to fight with their arms and setting up cloth screen as a protection against arrows. Sometimes, the junks are fortunate enough to escape with a favouring wind; otherwise, the crews are butchered and the merchandise becomes pirates' booty» . As can be seen from the text, also the physical elements (water, poor soil, distress sea routes, monsoon climate) play an important role in explaining the aforementioned endemicity of pirate phenomenon: in one of the most relevant work by Anthony Reid, a supporter of the Braudelian method of historical investigation, it is reported that few major areas of the world have been so deeply marked by nature such as South-east Asia, going to emphasize the importance of geography in the study of human activities. During the first part of my research, a question to which I have tried to answer was to understand the extent to which individuals, who are placed in a given geographical and historical context, act in a manner consistent with that particular geo-cultural system and how, external elements in that system, can help to change the perspective of action; in essence, I have tried to study how and to what extent India, China and Europe (Western Culture) have affected the history of the indigenous population of South-east Asia and the Straits of Malacca and Singapore in particular. The constitution of the great European colonial empires stretched from the Malacca Straits to the South China Sea, marked the beginning of a progressive modification process of maritime piracy both in terms of objectives to be achieved and also procedures to be followed; Nicholas Tarling lucidly points out in this regard "the old empires decayed, but were not replaced, and with their boundaries marauding communities appared, led by the adveturous Sharifs, or deprived aristocracies, or hungry chiefs" . The main ethnic groups who practiced piracy, the Riau-Lingga Malay, Bugis and Dayak of East Malaysia and Brunei, and Ilanun Balangingi from the southern Philippines and the Sulu sea, became corsairs in the pay of the colonial authorities and all those princes or sultans deprived of their possessions. However, alongside the politically motivated piracy, continued to resist a kind of maritime banditry conducted by fishing associations, outcasts or Chinese immigrants and so-called nomads people of the sea (Orang Laut), clanic and personalistic in nature whose cultural substrate was made up of bonds of friendship, kinship and blood. The remarkable fact is that the two types of piracy are not mutually exclusive but, on the contrary, represented the two faces of a coin and it was not unusual for pirates and corsairs to exchange roles when political or economic contingencies were changed. Interesting in this regard it was been the reading and examination of archival documents found at the National Archives in London (The National Archives) showing exchanges of correspondence and minute of some of the leading authorities of the British Straits Settlements between the first and second half of the nineteenth century. A set of letters that, given its enormous historical and political significance I decided to bring entirely, contains the correspondence (1863-67) between the Straits Settlements Governor Orfeur Cavenagh, Abu Bakar ibn Temenggong Daing Ibrahim Temenggong of Johor and Inche Wan Ahmed, exiled prince of Pahang become rebellious and pirate. Proceeding with the analysis of the phenomenon and given the interest of the international community for the sea routes passing into the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, the next questions concerned what was the real impact of piracy on maritime trade, what costs in human and social terms it produced, which law enforcement measures riparian states and foreign countries (in colonial and post-colonial age) have come into force; in addition to these I had tried to understand who is the pirate, what are the main reasons for his actions, what is the connection, if does exist, between piracy, terrorism and organized crime. In this direction, starting from the definitions of piracy given by the International Maritime Organization and the International Maritime Bureau, I examined most of the international conventions and regional agreements in which the issue of maritime security and cooperation between states and supranational bodies is addressed, placing special attention to the rules and clauses contained in the treaties able to activate those mechanisms for cooperation and burden sharing (burden-sharing) indispensable to the solution or, more realistically, the containment of the problem. Of great relevance to this line of analysis it has proved useful the socio-anthropological approach by Carolin Liss on the links between maritime banditry, criminal syndicates and terrorist groups (criminal syndicate) and the statistical and methodological approach by Karsten von Hoesslin focused on quantity, quality and type of assaults committed at sea. Concluded the second part of the thesis, I went to compare what is written in both historical and contemporary perspective to understand what kind of conclusion emerged from the results of my research; I asked myself, therefore, a further question: taking as a fixed point the thought of Braudel and Reid, following the method of analysis of Liss and Hoesslin, examine the archival documents and translations of ancient texts on the subject (the Sejarah Melayu and Suma Oriental of Tome Pires), given the availability (more or less declared) from South-east Asian newly established states (post-independence) to cooperation and given the interest of third actors in the straits, is it conceivable and correct to sustain now, in the first half of the new millennium, the possibility of a modification of the ancient customs and traditions and entrenched rivalry between neighboring countries on the basis of a new collective consciousness directed to a harmonious resolution, conveyed by a general law, of the phenomenon of maritime piracy? Or are we facing with a false hub of history, with a point that falsely or inappropriately is considered the turnaround from a tradition that has its roots in the coastal kingdoms of the sixth century and which is the sub-cultural layer of those population who have made the sea their source of wealth and power? To say it once again with Braudel, has the longue durée history undergone a change of route or will it repeat and renew her cycle again and again, sweetened by new technological tools and new forms of politics and economics? And if a change is in place, why now and how does it happen? Will history repeat itself? To give an answer, as thoroughly as possible, to this question I tried to define some of those steps that the countries of ASEAN should follow in order to effectively combat maritime piracy, terrorism widespread locally and organized crime; what could be the milestones in the process of construction of a shared legal system able to provide answers to many of the legal issues including the lack of a common legislation on maritime security. The watchword in the near future will have to be 'mutual legal assistance' in view of the implementation, in national legal corpora, of all those rules necessary to give effect to the directions contained in international conventions. Eventually, I propose a different and further reading of all those theories that track in failure or in the great inefficiency of coordinating policies in the field of maritime safety, the proliferation of piracy. Though I substantially agree with some of those interpretations, two points are critical and deserves attention: the lack of a proper historical and historiographical perspective of analysis and what I have called the axiom of the ultimate solution.

2009/2010 ; Lo scopo di questa ricerca di dottorato è l'analisi geopolitica di una regione transfrontaliera dell'Asia centrale: la valle del Fergana. Tre anni di ricerca sul campo: l'analisi delle frontiere di questa regione attualmente divisa politicamente tra Uzbekistan, Tagikistan e Kirghizistan, la cartografia analitica, le osservazioni, le interviste alla popolazione e agli esperti, la ricerca nelle biblioteche della regione, nella capitale dell'Uzbekistan, Tashkent (presso l'Istituto Francese di Studi sull'Asia centrale – IFEAC) e la ricerca svolta in Francia principalmente presso l'Istituto Francese di Geopolitica (IFG) e la Biblioteca Nazionale di Francia (BNF), sono gli strumenti che hanno permesso lo studio di questo territorio. Il principale obiettivo del lavoro è l'analisi delle rivalità di potere della valle del Fergana. Grazie alla sua fertilità e alla sua importante posizione strategica all'interno del contesto geopolitico centrasiatico, il bacino del Fergana è stato e continua tuttora ad essere una posta in gioco ambita da differenti attori territoriali. La rivalità di potere tra i diversi attori si gioca soprattutto sullo scenario transfrontaliero della regione. Il secondo scopo di questa ricerca è la presentazione e la valutazione di un particolare attore territoriale della valle, il Regionalismo culturale. La parte introduttiva della ricerca si concentrerà su una presentazione del contesto centrasiatico e sulle peculiarità derivanti dalle sue frontiere. In seguito verrà introdotta la "posta in gioco" Fergana con le sue risorse fisiche ed economiche al fine di legittimare l'importanza del territorio. Infine l'introduzione si concluderà con la teoria geopolitica: il perché della scelta della scuola di geopolitica del geografo francese Yves Lacoste per questa ricerca e una prima analisi dello spazio Fergana come regione divisa tra confine e frontiera. Il lavoro è strutturato in due grandi parti. La prima, più teorica, è relativa all'analisi dei tre attori territoriali. Le rappresentazioni dei differenti attori che verranno presentate, non seguiranno un ordine cronologico, ma un ordine concettuale: eventi simultanei verranno dunque analizzati non nello stesso momento, perché relativi a rappresentazioni differenti del territorio Fergana. Il primo capitolo è consacrato all'attore Nazione. Con questa espressione si intende non solo l'attore Stato-Nazione in sé, o meglio gli Stati-Nazione (Uzbekistan, Tagikistan e Kirghizistan), ma anche la Nazione come idea, come politica nazionalistica applicata ad un territorio. La valle del Fergana è diventata una regione transfrontaliera da quando, negli anni '20, fu divisa tra i tre Stati, allora all'interno della Unione delle Repubbliche Socialiste Sovietiche (URSS). Negli anni '90, in seguito alla caduta dell'URSS, il Fergana divenne una regione divisa da frontiere non più interne ma internazionali. Questo capitolo ha come scopo l'analisi di tutte le rappresentazioni dell'attore Nazione per quanto riguarda il contesto Fergana, dalla sua nascita (anni '20) fino all'indipendenza delle Repubbliche (anni '90). Sicuramente la rappresentazione più importante da analizzare è quella della creazione delle sue frontiere. L'attore Nazione è senza dubbio l'attore geopolitico più importante anche perché quello più legittimato in questo contesto territoriale. Il capitolo approfondirà anche le relazioni tra i differenti Stati-Nazione che rappresentano allo stesso tempo: un unico attore (contro la Religione e il Regionalismo culturale) e tre attori differenti quando competono tra loro per il territorio Fergana. Il secondo attore è la Religione. La valle del Fergana è una delle aree centrasiatiche più credenti e praticanti e la religione islamica ha sempre avuto un ruolo importante nella gestione della società ferganiana. Verrà proposta un'analisi di tutte le rappresentazioni della religione nel Fergana: il sufismo autoctono con un'analisi sulla geografia sacra dei luoghi ferganiani importanti per questa corrente dell'Islam; l'Islam tradizionale del periodo sovietico, divenuto un'arma legale utilizzata da Mosca per combattere l'ortodossia religiosa sufi del Fergana; il fondamentalismo wahabbita degli ultimi anni importato dall'Afghanistan, dal Pakistan, dall'Arabia Saudita, come conseguenza dell'invasione sovietica dell'Afghanistan del 1979 e dunque in seguito all'incontro tra i musulmani sovietici e i mujaheddin afgani. In seguito verrà analizzato come le differenti varianti dell'attore Religione si sono opposte, negli anni, all'attore Nazione per il controllo del potere e delle risorse del territorio Fergana. Un fenomeno particolarmente analizzato sarà la politicizzazione dell'attore Religione e come questa politicizzazione ha portato l'attore in questione ad essere l'elemento protagonista di numerosi eventi nel Fergana. Il terzo attore è il Regionalismo culturale. Con questa espressione si fa riferimento all'identità geo-culturale di questo insieme regionale che persiste nonostante le pressioni nazionalistiche e religiose. La valle del Fergana è sempre stata un insieme geografico, politico, sociale, malgrado negli ultimi secoli la sua popolazione si è sempre distinta per il suo alto livello di multietnicità e di disomogeneità linguistica. Questo però, non ha impedito un'amalgamazione sociale di tale popolazione che ha sempre considerato la multietnicità come la normalità e ha sempre attribuito ad ogni "etnia" un ruolo sociale integrato all'interno del sistema Fergana. Popolazioni di lingua e cultura persiana e sedentaria e popolazioni di lingua e cultura turca, sedentaria o nomade hanno sempre condiviso, ognuna con il proprio ruolo sociale, una vita comunitaria all'interno della regione e questa è sicuramente la caratteristica principale del Regionalismo culturale del Fergana. Questo equilibrio cambiò con la perdita di sovranità politica della regione, con l'istituzione dei nazionalismi e la conseguente spartizione della regione tra tre dei cinque nuovi Stati nazionali dell'Asia centrale sovietica. In questo capitolo verranno analizzate le principali rappresentazioni nel tempo dell'attore Regionalismo culturale e come esso si sia opposto agli altri attori territoriali, soprattutto all'attore Nazione. La seconda parte di questo lavoro è stata dedicata all'impatto che gli attori territoriali hanno oggi nella valle del Fergana, soprattutto nelle sue aree di frontiera. Questa parte è il risultato delle interviste e delle osservazioni sul campo effettuate in Asia centrale e in particolare nel Fergana nelle spedizioni del 2007, 2009 e del 2010. Nel primo capitolo verrà analizzata la frontiera di questa regione dal punto di vista teorico, in particolar modo con l'analisi del Fergana come" prima o ultima linea di difesa". Nel secondo capitolo, all'interno di un contesto di base: la differenza tra la frontiera all'epoca sovietica e all'epoca dell'indipendenza, ci sarà un approfondimento della definizione di frontiera centrasiatica, l'esame della burocrazia di frontiera, del posto di blocco e dei documenti del soggetto transfrontaliero. Saranno trattate, inoltre, le tematiche relative alle relazioni commerciali transfrontaliere, come i "tre" Fergana riescono ancora ad interagire malgrado la crescente rigidità delle frontiere e verranno studiate le relazioni sociali transfrontaliere sempre all'interno del panorama ferganiano di oggi. In questo contesto, verranno considerate le interviste svolte nel Fergana, le opinioni riguardo le difficoltà di passaggio e di comunicazione nella valle ed analizzeremo la presenza dei tre attori geopolitici che tuttora giocano un ruolo fondamentale nelle relazioni e nei conflitti di frontiera. Il terzo capitolo sarà dedicato ai centri urbani del Fergana; la loro storia, il rapporto dei ferganiani con le città e soprattutto le rappresentazioni interne ed esterne che i centri urbani hanno assunto all'interno di una regione oggi del tutto transfrontaliera. Il quarto capitolo si concentrerà sulle evoluzioni demografiche della popolazione: il Fergana, che durante gli anni zaristi e sovietici era terra di immigrazione, con l'indipendenza e dunque con la concretizzazione delle frontiere, si ritrova terra di emigrazione. Il quinto capitolo sarà dedicato al Fergana delle infrastrutture: come la strada ferrata e la rete stradale influiscono e sono influenzate dalle mutazioni frontaliere di questa regione. Il sesto capitolo riprenderà degli interrogativi teorici posti all'inizio del lavoro, con un analisi conclusiva sull'odierno "Fergana delle frontiere". La conclusione di questa ricerca, in realtà, è una vero e proprio capitolo di analisi, dove si farà il punto della situazione e si constaterà la persistenza dell'attore Regionalismo culturale, la sua evoluzione e il suo rapporto attuale con gli altri attori geopolitici. Un punto di arrivo fondamentale della ricerca è il fatto che la regione Fergana è cambiata, sotto differenti punti di vista e la popolazione ferganiana ha nuovi punti di riferimento culturali, politici e sociali. Differenti forme politiche e nuove strutture culturali hanno portato la popolazione del Fergana, nel tempo, a mutare la propria immagine e la propria identità: "russa, musulmana, ferganiana", in seguito "sovietica, uzbeca (o tagica o kirghiza), atea, ferganiana" e infine "uzbeca (o tagica o kirghiza), laica, ferganiana". Il territorio, le sue frontiere e la società che lo abita sono cambiati, ma vedremo che, nonostante i forti ostacoli posti dall'attore Nazione, il Regionalismo culturale riuscirà a sopravvivere, adattandosi alle nuove tendenze e ai nuovi modi di interpretare il Fergana. Come ultimo studio sul territorio, faremo degli esempi riguardanti gli eventi più recenti concernenti il Fergana (massacro di Andijan nel 2005, scontri ad Osh nel giugno 2010) ed analizzeremo questi fenomeni alla luce delle rivalità di potere geopolitiche che ancora persistono nella regione. ; Cette thèse de Doctorat propose une analyse géopolitique d'une région transfrontalière de l'Asie centrale, la vallée du Ferghana, aujourd'hui divisée entre les Républiques d'Ouzbékistan, du Tadjikistan et du Kirghizistan. Des séjours sur le terrain répartis sur trois ans ont constitué la base de la recherche, au travers de l'analyse des frontières, de la cartographie analytique, d'entretiens qualitatifs avec experts et habitants, et de recherches bibliographiques dans le Ferghana ainsi que dans la capitale ouzbèke Tachkent – notamment près l'Institut Français d'Etudes sur l'Asie Centrale (IFEAC). Ces périodes de terrain ont été complétées par un séjour de recherche en France, articulé principalement autour d'un approfondissement théorique à l'Institut Français de Géopolitique (IFG) de l'Université Paris VIII-Vincennes et de recherches bibliographiques à la Bibliothèque Nationale de France. L'objet de ce travail est donc l'analyse des rivalités de pouvoir entre les acteurs territoriaux sur l'enjeu territorial de la vallée du Ferghana, bassin fertile à la position stratégique dans le contexte géopolitique centrasiatique élargi. Si le Ferghana a toujours constitué un enjeu disputé par différents acteurs territoriaux, les rivalités des acteurs actuels jouent aujourd'hui surtout au niveau frontalier et transfrontalier. Ce faisant, cette thèse introduit un nouvel acteur dans le schéma d'analyse géopolitique classique: le Régionalisme culturel. Le Régionalisme culturel en tant qu'acteur territorial y fait donc l'objet d'une présentation approfondie ainsi que d'une évaluation de son importance passée et actuelle. Concentrée d'abord sur le contexte centrasiatique et les particularités qui découlent de ses frontières, l'introduction présente ensuite « l'enjeu » Ferghana et ses ressources physiques et économiques, qui expliquent l'importance de ce territoire. Elle se poursuit sur un rapide point théorique sur la géopolitique et la justification du choix de l'école de pensée géopolitique de Yves Lacoste comme cadre théorique de cette recherche, avant de s'achever sur une première analyse de l'espace Ferghana à l'aune des catégories de frontières et de confins. La thèse est structurée en deux grandes parties. La première, à dominante théorique, analyse à tour de rôle les trois acteurs territoriaux qui rivalisent pour le pouvoir sur le Ferghana: il s'agit de la Nation, de la Religion, et du Régionalisme culturel. La présentation des acteurs, de leurs différentes incarnations et de leurs représentations respectives du territoire ferghanien sont ainsi abordés selon un ordre conceptuel ; des évènements s'étant produits simultanément ne sont ainsi pas analysés chronologiquement mais séparément, en tant qu'ils se rapportent aux acteurs évoqués. Le premier chapitre est consacré à l'acteur Nation. Par cette expression nous entendons non seulement l'entité effective Etat-Nation et ses trois incarnations (Ouzbékistan, Tadjikistan, Kirghizistan), mais aussi la Nation comme idéologie qui agit sur le territoire au travers de politiques nationalistes. La force de légitimation de l'acteur Nation n'est pas étrangère à l'accroissement de son importance sur ce territoire, qui l'a sans aucun doute mené au sommet de la hiérarchie des acteurs géopolitiques dans cette région. Ce chapitre analyse les représentations du Ferghana définies et mises en oeuvres par l'acteur Nation depuis son apparition dans les années 1920. La vallée du Ferghana est en effet devenue une région transfrontalière à cette époque, avec son intégration à l'Union des Républiques Socialistes Soviétiques (URSS) et sa partition entre trois des cinq Républiques Socialistes Soviétiques nouvellement créées en Asie Centrale. Dans les années 1990, avec la chute de l'URSS et l'indépendance des trois Républiques, les frontières qui divisaient le Ferghana ne sont plus simplement internes, mais deviennent bel et bien internationales. Parmi les représentations majeures qui font l'objet d'une étude dans ce chapitre, une attention particulière est portée aux frontières nationales, leur création et leur évolution. Le chapitre s'intéresse également aux relations entre les différents Etats-Nations, qui constituent un acteur unique lorsqu'ils rivalisent contre les autres acteurs territoriaux – la Religion et le Régionalisme culturel – mais aussi trois acteurs différenciés lorsqu'ils se disputent le territoire Ferghana entre eux. Le deuxième chapitre est consacré au deuxième acteur territorial, la Religion. La vallée du Ferghana est l'une des régions d'Asie centrale les plus croyantes et pratiquantes, et la religion islamique y a toujours eu un rôle important dans la gestion de la société. Ce chapitre propose d'abord une analyse des représentations de la religion dans le Ferghana : le soufisme autochtone et la "géographie sacrée" des hauts lieux de ce courant de l'Islam dans le Ferghana ; l'Islam traditionnel de la période soviétique, devenu une arme légale utilisée par Moscou pour combattre l'orthodoxie soufie du Ferghana ; le fondamentalisme wahabbite récemment apparu, importé d'Afghanistan, du Pakistan et d'Arabie Saoudite à la suite de l'invasion de l'Afghanistan par les Soviétiques en 1979 et de la rencontre qui s'en est ensuivie entre les musulmans soviétiques et les moudjahiddines afghans. Ensuite est examinée la manière dont les différentes variantes de l'acteur Religion se sont opposées, au cours des années, à l'acteur Nation pour le contrôle du pouvoir et des ressources du territoire Ferghana. Nous y voyons comment la rivalité géopolitique entre deux acteurs varie du tout au tout selon que l'on parle de l'acteur Nation au cours de la période Soviétique ou bien au cours de l'ère ayant succédé à l'indépendance. Une attention particulière est portée au phénomène de politisation de l'acteur Religion et à la manière dont cette politisation a amené la Religion à assumer un rôle de protagoniste dans de nombreux évènements du Ferghana. Le troisième acteur est le Régionalisme culturel. Avec cette expression nous faisons référence à l'identité géo-culturelle de cet ensemble régional, qui persiste malgré les pressions nationalistes et religieuses. Car aussi loin que remonte son existence en tant que lieu, la vallée du Ferghana a toujours constitué un ensemble géographique, politique et social à part entière. Bien que sa population se soit distinguée au cours des derniers siècles par une grande multiethnicité et hétérogénéité linguistique, cela n'a pas empêché un amalgame sociétal de cette population qui a toujours considéré la multiethnicité comme normale, et toujours a attribué à chaque « ethnie » un rôle social déterminé au sein du système Ferghana. Qu'elles soient de langue et de culture persane et sédentaire, de langue et de culture turque et sédentaire, ou bien de langue et de culture turque et nomade, ces populations ont toujours partagé, chacune dans son propre rôle social, une vie communautaire au sein de la région, et ce phénomène est la caractéristique principale de ce que nous appelons le Régionalisme culturel du Ferghana. Cependant, cet équilibre change avec la perte de souveraineté politique de la région, l'avènement du nationalisme sous l'action de l'URSS, et la partition de l'espace entre trois Etats nations de l'Asie centrale soviétique. Ce chapitre analyse ainsi les principales représentations de l'acteur Régionalisme culturel au cours du temps, et comment il s'est opposé aux autres acteurs territoriaux, en particulier à l'acteur Nation. La seconde partie de ce travail est dédiée aux manifestations actuelles des acteurs territoriaux dans la vallée du Ferghana, plus spécialement dans ses zones de frontière. Cette partie est le résultat des entretiens et des observations de terrain réalisés en Asie centrale et dans le Ferghana au cours de séjours en 2007, 2009 et 2010. Le premier chapitre analyse la frontière de cette région du point de vue théorique, à la lumière notamment des catégories géostratégiques de "première ligne de défense" ou "dernière ligne de défense". Dans le contexte d'une modification de la frontière entre l'époque soviétique et celle de l'indépendance, le deuxième chapitre approfondit la définition de frontière centrasiatique, au travers principalement de l'analyse de la bureaucratie de frontière, des postes de contrôle et des documents requis pour le passage de la frontière. Les thématiques liées aux relations commerciales transfrontalières y sont examinées : comment les "trois" Ferghana parviennent encore à interagir malgré la rigidité croissante des frontières, quelles relations sociales transfrontalières subsistent au sein du Ferghana d'aujourd'hui. Les entretiens qualitatifs réalisés dans le Ferghana jouent un rôle majeur pour recenser les difficultés de passage et de communication dans la vallée et déceler, dans les descriptions et jugements recueillis, la présence des trois acteurs géopolitiques qui toujours jouent un rôle fondamental dans les relations et conflits de frontière. Le troisième chapitre est dédié aux centres urbains du Ferghana : leur histoire, le rapport que les Ferghaniens entretiennent avec eux, et surtout les représentations internes et externes que les centres urbains assument au sein d'une région désormais tout à fait transfrontalière. Le quatrième chapitre se concentre sur les évolutions démographiques de la population. Jusque là terre d'immigration tout au long des années tsaristes et soviétiques, le Ferghana est devenu une terre d'émigration avec l'indépendance et la concrétisation des frontières. Le cinquième chapitre s'intéresse au Ferghana des infrastructures, notamment les réseaux ferré et routier, et leur rapport d'influence réciproque mutations frontalières de cette région. Le sixième chapitre reprend les interrogations théoriques posées dans l'introduction et développe une analyse conclusive sur le Ferghana des frontières aujourd'hui. La conclusion de cette recherche dresse le bilan actuel du Ferghana et des rapports entre les différents acteurs géopolitiques, et observe la persistance de l'acteur Régionalisme culturel. Force est de constater l'existence de changements dans la région Ferghana à différents points de vue. La population ferghanienne dispose de nouveaux cadres de référence culturels, politiques et sociaux qui ont pris une importance majeure. Des nouvelles formes politiques et de structures culturelles ont eu un impact sur son image d'elle-même, sur son identité: "russe, musulmane,ferghanienne", puis "soviétique, ouzbèke (ou tadjike ou kirghiz), athée, ferghanienne", et enfin "ouzbèke (ou tadjike ou kirghiz), laïque, ferghanienne". Cependant, bien que le territoire, ses frontières et la société qui l'habite aient changé, et malgré les obstacles forts posés par l'acteur Nation, que Régionalisme culturel a réussi à survivre, en s'adaptant aux nouvelles tendances et aux nouveaux modes d'interprétation du Ferghana. La conclusion s'achève sur les évènements les plus récents du Ferghana; massacre d'Andijan en 2005 et affrontements à Osh en juin 2010, qui sont analysés à la lumière des rivalités de pouvoir géopolitique qui persistent encore dans la région. ; This PhD dissertation proposes a geopolitical analysis of a centrasiatic transborder region, the Ferghana Valley, which is today divided between the Republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. A basis of the research, field trips spread over the past three years enabled the development of instruments such as border analysis, analytical cartography, qualitative interviews with experts and inhabitants, and bibliographical research in the Ferghana as well as the Uzbek capital city Tashkent – noticeably at the French Institute for Central Asian Studies (IFEAC). As a complement to the field trips in Central Asia, a research period in France permitted both a consolidation in geopolitical theory at the French Institute of Geopolitics (IFG) of the University of Paris 8-Vincennes, and additional bibliographical research at the French National Library (BNF). The topic of the research is hence the analysis of power rivalries between "territorial actors" over the "territorial stake" of the Fergana Valley, a fertile basin of strategical location within the larger geopolitical context of Central Asia. Always a stake disputed by various territorial actors over time, the Fergana Valley now experiences power rivalries from contemporaneous territorial actors first and foremost on the border and transborder levels. By doing so, the dissertation introduces a new actor in the classical geopolitical pattern of analysis: the cultural regionalism. The dissertation hence offers a detailed presentation of the cultural regionalism as well as an evaluation of its past and current importance. First focusing on the centrasiatic context and the peculiarities which stem from its borders, the introduction presents the "stake" Fergana and its economic and physical resources which explain its importance as a territory. A rapid summary of the theory of geopolitics follows, with the justification of the choice of the French Lacostian school as the theoretical frame of this work. The introduction closes on a first analysis of the Fergana as a space of border or frontier. The thesis is structured in two main parts. The first, more theoretical, analyses each of the three territorial actors which aim for power over the Fergana: the Nation, the Religion, and the Cultural Regionalism. The presentation of the actors, of their respective embodiments and of their manifestations within the ferganian territory is organised according to a conceptual rationale; events that occurred simultaneously are thus not considered following a chronological order, but separately, according to their respective relations with the actors evoked. The first chapter focuses on the actor Nation. By this word we understand not only the effective entity of the Nation-State, and its three embodiments (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan), but also the Nation as an ideology which acts upon the territory through nationalistic policies. The force of legitimation of the actor Nation did certainly not have a neutral role in the rise of this actor in the Ferganian landscape, a process which led the Nation to the top of the geopolitical actors' hierarchy in the region. This chapter also analyses the representations of the Fergana which are defined and implemented by the actor Nation since its birth in the 1920s. In fact, the Fergana valley first became a transborder region only in these years, through its integration to the Union of the Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) and its partition between three of the five newly created Socialist Soviet Republics in Central Asia. In the 1990s, following the fall of the USSR and the independence of the three Republics, the borders which divided the Ferghana stopped being only internal, but became real and proper international borders. Among the main representations that this study looks at, a particular attention is devoted to the study of the national borders , their creation and their evolution. The chapter also looks at the relations between the different Nation-States, which form a unique actor when they rival against the other territorial actors – the Religion and the Cultural Regionalism –, but three well different ones when they rival among themselves. The second chapter concentrates upon the second territorial actor, the Religion. The Fergana valley is one of the most pious and practicing region of Central Asia, and the Islamic religion always played a major role in the society's administration and organization. The chapter proposes first an analysis of the religion's representations in the Fergana: the autochthonous sufism and its sacred geography within the Fergana valley ; the traditional Islam of the soviet times, which became a legal weapon used by Moscow to fight the sufi orthodoxy in the Fergana ; the recently appeared wahabbite fundamentalism, imported from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the encounter it induced between the soviet muslims and the afghan mujaheddins. It is then examined how the different variations of the actor opposed themselves to the actor Nation, over the years, for the control over the power and the resources of the Fergana. We look at how the geopolitical rivalries vary dramatically from the soviet era to that of the independence. A special attention is devoted to the phenomenon of politization of the actor Religion and the way this led the Religion to endorse a role of protagonist in many of the Fergana's events. The third actor is the Cultural Regionalism. It is hereby referred to the geo-cultural identity of this regional entity, which persists in spite of nationalistic and religious pressures. In fact, as long as the Fergana has existed as a place, it has always constituted a geographical, political and social whole. Although its population has been characterized during the past centuries by high levels of multiethnicity and linguistic heterogeneity, this did not prevent the societal amalgamation of populations which always held multiethnicity as normality, and always attributed to each "group" a specific social role within the system Fergana. Be they of language and culture persian and sedentary, turk and sedentary or turk and nomadic, these populations always shared, each in its own social role, a common life within the region. This very phenomenon is the main characteristic of what we call the Cultural Regionalism of the Fergana. However, this equilibrium changes with the loss of political sovereignty of the region and the rise of nationalism under the soviet sovereignty. This chapter analyzes the main representation of the actor Cultural Regionalism over time, and how it took stand against the other territorial actors, especially the Nation. The second part of the dissertation as dedicated to the current manifestations of the territorial actors in the Fergana valley, particularly in its border zones. This part results from the interviews and field observation undertaken in Central Asia and the Fergana in 2007, 2009 and 2010. The first chapter analyzes the border of this region from a theoretical point of view, especially in the light of the geostrategical categories of "first line of defence" or "last line of defence". In the context of a transformation of the border from the soviet era to that of the independence, the second chapter explores the definition of the centrasiatic border, mainly through the analysis of border bureaucracy, control posts and documents required to cross the border. The chapter looks at themes connected to the commercial transborder relations : how the "three" Fergana still manage to interact despite growing border rigidity, which social relationships subsist today. The qualitative interviews led in the Fergana are a major source in this process of reviewing the difficulties of passage and communication within the valley, and of tracking the actual presence of the three geopolitical actors which play a major role in the border relations and conflicts. The third chapter focuses on the Ferganian urban centres: their history, the relations that the Ferganians have with them, et above all the internal and external representations of these centres in a now fully transborder region. The fourth chapter concentrates on the demographical evolutions of the Ferganian population. Up until then a land of immigration, the Fergana became a land of emigration following the independence and the materialization of the borders. The fifth chapter deals with the Ferganian infrastructures, especially the rail and road networks, and their relationship of reciprocal influence with the mutation of the borders in the region. The sixth chapter builds on the theoretical interrogations evoked in the introduction of the dissertation and develops a conclusive analysis of the Fergana of the borders nowadays. The conclusion of this research depicts the current Fergana, the relations between the different geopolitical actors and underscores the persistence of the actor Cultural Regionalism. It establishes the existence of tremendous changes in the region Fergana from various viewpoints: the Ferganian population has new frames of cultural, political and social reference whose importance increased dramatically ; new political forms and cultural structures influenced its self-image, its very identity: "russian, muslim, ferganian", then "soviet, uzbek (or tajik or kyrgyz), atheist, ferganian", finally "uzbek (or tajik or kyrgyz), secular, ferganian". However, although the territory, its borders and inhabitants changed, and despite the strong obstacles set by the actor Nation, the cultural regionalism succeeded in maintaining itself, by adapting to the new tendencies and ways of interpretation of the Fergana. The conclusion ends with the most recent events of the Fergana, the Andjian massacre in 2005 and the Osh clash in 2010, which are both analysed in the light of the geopolitical power rivalries which persist in the region. ; XXIII Ciclo