Frédéric Laugrand

Frédéric Laugrand (Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris; PhD, Canada, 1997) is an anthropologist doing collaborative research in Canada and in Austronesia, particularly in the Philippines. Most of his research encompasses Indigenous ontologies/cosmologies, human-animal relationships, oral traditions, myths and rituals, shamanic systems, divination and anticipation, Christian missions, ethnohistory, transfer of knowledge and transformation of indigenous traditions, “natural hazards” and resilience.

Laugrand is finishing a research project on the role of animals in divination systems in a comparative perspective in South-East Asia and in the circumpolar regions where he worked for twenty years. With L. Strivay, L. Simon and O. Servais he was recently granted an FNRS project entitled Investigating the trade in bats and pangolins Local knowledge, wet markets and perceptions in Southeast Asia and the West (2020-2022). Since 2018 he has been a co-researcher for a project currently funded by the SSHRC (Canada), headed by S. Simon and called Austronesian worlds, human-animal entanglements in the Pacific Anthropocene. Previously, Laugrand had been a co-researcher for several projects to document local knowledge about wildlife. One was an ARES PRD-Philippines project called Local adaptation, resilience & interpretation of socio-natural hazards, and environmental management in the northern Philippines (Luzon) and islands. Another project deals with Amerindian cosmologies and religious dynamics, formerly headed by R. Crépeau (SSHRC, Canada) and now by L. Jérôme (FRQ-SC, Canada). With the following ARC research project he will do fieldwork among several Indonesian populations who live near the Krakatoa and Tambora volcanoes.

As an ethnographer Laugrand has developed the technique (or approach) of workshops on intergenerational transmission of knowledge for over twenty years, starting these activities with his Dutch colleague, Jarich Oosten from Leiden. It has been used in Canada (with Inuit at Arctic College and the support of SSHRCC), in South-East Asia (through a MISU-FNRS project), in Taiwan (with J. Laporte and the Tao of Lanyu), and in Mauritius (with O. Servais, L. Simon and others at the request of the ICJM, as part of a joint collaboration with Creole communities). This technique involves bringing young people together with competent elders who wish to pass on their knowledge on a given theme. It also involves facilitating exchanges of ideas through round table discussions, once a work agenda has been mutually agreed on. The interaction is filmed, recorded and the data is transcribed for transmission, preservation, and restitution to the host community and for analysis by the researchers. This technique has the advantage of providing access to vernacular categories and associations of ideas independently of the questions that anthropologists may ask before or after discussions. It complements other anthropological techniques and thus does not exclude doing interviews and making observations. The workshops may include on-site observation, exercises in mapping and drawing, performances and demonstrations of techniques and rituals. Films are later produced on that basis.

At UCL, Laugrand teaches courses and seminars on cosmologies in the making, the anthropology of animals and plants, and China’s contemporary history and Chinese worlds. His current research is dealing with a large ethnolinguistic area known as Austronesia, stretching from China to Madagascar, New Zealand and the Pacific. Laugrand has directed several research projects on the peoples and traditions of Arctic Canada and published extensively on Inuit oral traditions in the form of verbatim transcriptions in Inuktitut, English and French. These texts are being republished for use in schools and colleges across Nunavut. (https://nacmedia.ca/product/inuit-worldviews/) and (http://www.traditional-knowledge.ca/english/default.php)

He did a similar project with three Indigenous groups of the Philippines, namely the Ibaloy, the Alangan mangyan and the Blaan of Mindanao. He has edited a series of books in native languages, English and French in the Verbatim collection published at UCL (Belgium) (https://pul.uclouvain.be/collection/?collection_ID=116)

As an administrator, Laugrand currently heads the Laboratoire d’anthropologie prospective (LAAP) at the UCL. (https://uclouvain.be/fr/instituts-recherche/iacchos/laap)

In the past he headed the Centre interuniversitaire d’études et de recherches autochtones (CIERA) at Université Laval (Canada) from 2005 to 2010, and directed the journal Anthropologie et Sociétés from 2010 to 2018.

He is also the director with Emmanuel Luce of the audio-visual series Les possédés et leurs mondes, which has been broadcasting each week since 2014 on YouTube. (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb5YUvJjEpeGBvmFOUasKoA/videos) The series includes nearly 1,000 videos lasting 25 minutes each on the life stories and research contributions of approximately a hundred anthropologists and social science researchers, in French and English.

Books, papers and films by F. Laugrand can be found in the following websites:

https://www.anthropolog.net/

https://uclouvain.academia.edu/fredericlaugrand

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frederic_Laugrand

Publications (2020)

Laugrand, F., A. Laugrand, J. Tamang & G. Magapin. « Doing exchanges with the dead. Exhuming Human Remains among the Ibaloy of Loacan (Philippines) ». Bijdragen tot-de Taal-, land- en volkenkunde /Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia (BKI), 176, 2020: 1-29.

Laugrand, F., A. Laugrand & G. Tremblay (eds.), [Anigo Balbas, Junior Bernardo, Danilo Basito, Bong Dapito, Isagani Garong, Luben Garong, Luito Vicente, Artur Masalansan, Bibuy Garong], Les savoirs de la forêt. Témoignages des Mangyans alangans de Siapo (Mindoro, Philippines), vol. 6. Louvain, Presses universitaires de Louvain, 112 p., 2020. [ISBN-978-2-39061-068-7]. Version en Alangan et tagalog : Mga Kaalaman sa Kagubatan. Mga Pahayag ng mga Mangyan Alangan ng Siapo (Mindoro, Pilipinas), 102 p., 2020 [ISBN-978-2-39061-070-0]

Laugrand, F & L. Simon (dir.), Compétences animales. Numéro spécial de la revue Anthropologica, 2020.

Laugrand, F., A. Laugrand, G. Magapin & J. Tamang (eds.), [Lola Vencina Alos, Lola Lourdes Bato, Lola Carmen Bato, Lolo Melanio Billit, Lola Tarcela Egme, Lola Linda Escad, Lolo Marcial Monang, Lolo Edward Primo, Lola Margarita Primo, Lolo Salvador Stanley, Lola Alice Tello, Lola Apolonia Tumbaga], Mapping the Land of Upper Loacan: Trees, Plants and Incidents (Itogon, Philippines), vol. 4, Louvain, Presses universitaires de Louvain, 160 p., 2020 [ISBN-978-2-87558-972-9]. Version en Nabaloy : Dogad shi Upper Doacan: Kiyow, Molmola tan Papsamak (Itogon, Pilipinas), Dibsho 4, 140 p. [ISBN-978-2-87558-973-6]

Laugrand, A. & F. Laugrand. « La ruse au cœur du geste rituel des Blaan de Little Baguio, Mindanao (Philippines) ». Revue cArgo no 10, 2020: 111-139. https://www.cargo.canthel.fr/cargo-10/

Laugrand, F., A. Laugrand & G. Tremblay (eds.), [Anigo Balbas, June Basa, Danilo Basito, Artus Benido, Junior Bernardo, Bong Dapito, Isagani Garong, Luben Garong, Bibuy Garong, Artur Masalansan, Tomas Ider, Semo Ruben, Luito Vicente et Samuel Vicente]. Les gardiens de la terre et des animaux. Témoignages des Mangyans alangans de Siapo (Mindoro, Philippines), vol. 5., Louvain, Presses universitaires de Louvain, 158 p., 2020. [ISBN-978-2-87558-975-0]. Version en Alangan et tagalog : Mga tapapag-alaga ng lupa at ng mga hayop. Mga pahayag ng mga Mangyan Alangan ng Siapo (Mindoro, Pilipinas), 160 p., [ISBN-978-2-87558-978-1]

Laugrand, F. & L. Simon (dir.), « What Do Animals and Plants Know, Predict and Transmit ? » Anthropologica 62, 2020: 15-25 (version en français pp. 3-14)

Cappe, A & F. Faugrand, « Prédire ou travestir. Marmottes et anthropocentrisme dans le nord-est du Canada ». Ethnologies, 2020 : 41, 2 : 89-112.