Aspects traditionnels et changements culturels des pratiques courantes concernant la marmotte alpine en France.Traditional aspects and cultural changes about current practices concerning Alpine marmot (Marmota marmota) in France

Résumé

As an emblematic animal in the Alps, Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota) was particularly susceptible to be affected by social and cultural changes that have taken place in mountain societies for the last twenty or thirty years. The status and image of Alpin Marmot have moved in French mountain areas and social groups. Old-time cultural practices, especially concerning marmot-hunting, disappeared or are less and less common. In the same time, using, or rather exploiting, the image or the name of marmot has grown up. Our ethnological enquiries have brought out that considerable social and cultural changes have occured in the ways Alpine Marmot is exploited and managed. However, it can be said modern representations, artefacts, advertising and walking tours linked to marmots are not ever mere innovations. Some of them, like toys, were attested in the XIXth century, whenever their forms or their social significance or use were different. Certain ancient practices that have endured until nowadays, like catching and taming of the young marmots, have often lost their original meaning. In a lot of current cultural practices, even if they seem quite new, the marmot embodies the regional or local identity, as it used to be in the past, and people refer to this animal to reassert their sens of regional identity and tradition.