"I” AM ANOTHER"

???? "I am another" After posing the question of "Being" - of his Being - in all simplicity, Arthur Rimbaud was careful not to give it any semblance of an answer... One would almost expect him to complete his questioning of “I iam an other" with "the other is an I", to shed light on his conception of otherness through the unknown of a metamorphosis... But for the 17-year-old poet, the "I" was perhaps still just a... Game? - a question shared with the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa: "At the end of the day, who am I when I'm not playing?

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"No final do dia, quem sou eu quando n?o e???stou a jogar ??? Bernardo Soares - personagem fictício considerado um “semi-heter?nimo” de Pessoa (1982), Livro do desassossego, Lisboa,. ática, Ed.

I is a naked monkey –

All monkeys have hair on their bodies. The only exception is man, described as a "naked ape" by Desmond Morris.

(Desmond Morris (1967) "Le singe nu", Paris, Grasset, Ed.)

Nudity" may have played a role in the hominisation process, in relation to living conditions and motor behaviours in the relatively treeless savannahs of Africa: hunting and endurance running in the sun require adaptation of thermoregulation and protection from UV rays.

This "nakedness" is only an appearance, however, because the human body is well endowed with hair follicles. However, human hair is less numerous, shorter and finer than that of other apes, and its different distribution is accompanied by the presence of an abundance of sebaceous glands. Furthermore, hairless skin is loaded with a pigment secreted by the body, melanin, which protects it from the sun's ultraviolet rays and determines the skin's more or less brown colour. But several factors are interdependently involved in the evolution of the individual. Genetics and embryology have enabled us to refine our understanding of this phenomenon.

The work of Barbara Mc Clintock and Edward Lewis has shown that the genome, far from being as stable as was generally thought, is highly plastic: there are so-called "jumping genes" ("transposons" or "mobile genetic elements"), which are fragments of DNA capable of multiplying autonomously and moving freely within the genetic material. Transposons account for almost half of the genome and are considered to be the "engines of evolution".

Barbara McClintock. (1956) Controlling elements and the gene. Cold Spring Harb Symp.

Most transposons remain inactive, but others bind to functional genes, described by Edward Lewis as "architectural" genes because they are involved in the regionalisation of the different parts of the body during embryogenesis (following the antero-posterior axis in vertebrates).

?Edward Lewis (1978), A gene complex controlling segmentation in Drosophila, Nature 276.

I am a monkey without a tail -

The insertion of "jumping genes" in a region of DNA involved in the development of the caudal appendage in monkeys would explain (in part) why the great apes (including humans) have no tail, an evolutionary modification that occurred some twenty million years ago, and which was to play a key role in the process of hominisation as follows:

Architect genes from the "Hox" group ensure the organisation of body structures during embryonic development. There are 39 of these genes, which are involved in regionalisation, and they are aligned on the chromosomes according to the order of the structures that will appear. They give a precise instruction at a given moment in development: a craniofacial contraction is thought to reposition the head in relation to the vertebral axis, leading to a new pattern of limb insertion and, consequently, a displacement of the pelvis determining a change in posture and behaviour (verticality - bipedalism - aptitude for running - hunting - meat-eating), as well as a reduction in the gestation period in pregnant females. Children born early (neoteny) will retain their juvenile characteristics and receive attentive care, which will modify their learning and, as a result, their level of socialisation...

Natalia Soshnikova (2013) , Hox genes regulationi in vertebrates, Developmental dynamics,? (Vol. 243,?n° 1)

Bo Xia et al. (2021) The genetic basis of tail-loss evolution in humans and apes Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Ed.

The insertion of "jumping genes" in a region of DNA involved in the development of the caudal appendage in monkeys would explain (in part) why the great apes (including humans) have no tail, an evolutionary modification that occurred some twenty million years ago, and which was to play a key role in the process of hominisation as follows:

Architect genes from the "Hox" group ensure the organisation of body structures during embryonic development. There are 39 of these genes, which are involved in regionalisation, and they are aligned on the chromosomes according to the order of the structures that will appear. They give a precise instruction at a given moment in development: a craniofacial contraction is thought to reposition the head in relation to the vertebral axis, leading to a new pattern of limb insertion and, consequently, a displacement of the pelvis determining a change in posture and behaviour (verticality - bipedalism - aptitude for running - hunting - meat-eating), as well as a reduction in the gestation period in pregnant females. Children born early (neoteny) will retain their juvenile characteristics and receive attentive care, which will modify their learning and, as a result, their level of socialisation...

I is a very singular genus -

There is only one recognised human genus alive today: the genus Homo (from the Latin hominem - human being), which appeared in East Africa 2.8 million years ago.

I is a wise species -

There is now only one species of the genus Homo: Homo sapiens (from the Latin sapio - wisdom), which appeared in Africa around 300,000 years ago, before spreading there and then leaving the continent to colonise the rest of the world.

Ernst Mayr (1942), Systematics and the Origin of Species,New York, Columbia University Press, Ed.

Should I be subdivided into "races" ?

Deliberately ignoring references to the 'singularity' of the Genus and the 'wisdom' of the Species, some naturalists have nevertheless sought to distinguish in today's humanity an additional level of 'plurality', referring to different and hierarchical 'races'.

The concept of 'race', as it was applied to man during the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, in the historical context of the end of slavery, the great colonial expansions and the development of industrial society, corresponds to human populations that are distinguished from one another by certain morphological or physiological characteristics, and/or by geographical, historical, socio-cultural, ethical or religious criteria.

There are differences between the various groups studied that are hereditarily transmitted:

Thus, for Sir Francis Galton, social classes have their own qualities or defects, which are transmitted hereditarily... "Socially modest" human groups therefore have mediocre genetic potential, while other groups, "socially more advantaged", have good genetic potential.

Francis Macmillan Galton (1869-1883), Inquiries into Human faculty, London, Ed,

it was accepted that there was an innate hierarchy of genomes between human populations, and that these could therefore be subdivided into "races". However, at the time, knowledge of the realities of biology and genetics did not allow for any greater precision, and this so-called "biological" vision of the concept of race necessarily remained subjective. However, it was on the basis of this summary data that "racialist" theories began to proliferate, which considered that genetic potential (nature) was the determining factor in the social development (culture) of different human populations.

In all, the most restrictive classifications identify just three human 'races' (Teutonic, Mediterranean and Alpine, according to William Z. Ripley), while the most extensive classifications list up to sixty 'races', all defined in a superficial and largely arbitrary manner.

William Z. Ripley (1899), The Races of Europe: A Sociological study, New York: Appleton and Co Ed

In his 1883 book, Galton declared that it was important, in order to preserve intact a superior lineage of a biologically pure race, to avoid "mixing of the bloods" by miscegenation. Galton is also the founder of eugenics (from the Greek: eu ("good") and genna? ("to beget"), a programme of artificial selection aimed at producing a human race of the highest standard.

(Dominique Aubert-Marson (2010), Histoire de l'eugénisme, Paris?: Ellipses Ed.)

Joseph Arthur, Count of Gobineau, was the main theorist of biological racialisation. Between 1853 and 1855, he published the six volumes of an Essay on the Inequality of Human Races, which is a recapitulation of the history of human civilisations, organised around the concept of race. Gobineau also postulated the existence of three primitive races, which he based on "skin colour": "black", "yellow" and "white", ranked in hierarchical order from worst to best.

Joseph-Arthur (Comte de) Gobineau (1967), Essai sur l'inégalitédes races humaines (1853-1855). Paris: Pierre Belfond Ed.

The classification and above all the hierarchisation of "races" initiated by Gobineau would continue to be authoritative until the first half of the 20th century.

In 1933, the Franco-Swiss anthropologist George Montandon divided the "human species" into five "great races" (Europoid, Mongoloid, Negroid, Vedd-Australoid and Pygmy).

George Montandon, La race les races, mise au point ??d’ethnologie somatique. 1933).Paris?: Payot Ed.

According to Montandon, the classification of the Grand'races in the human hierarchy is not due to chance. The closer a race is to the primitive ape, the less evolved it is. Thus, in his system, the 'Pygmy Great Race' is directly linked to the gibbon, the 'Negroid Great Race' to the gorilla, and the 'Mongoloid Great Race' to the orang-utan. Of course, the "Europoid Great Race" occupies the highest branch of this genealogy. It is related to the chimpanzee... Lacking biologically relevant arguments, George Montandon, although violently anti-Semitic, did not know where to place the Jews in his classification table, no doubt because they had much more in common than genetic potential: cultural factors. Montandon was nevertheless recruited in 1941 as a "racial expert" by the Grand Commissariat aux Questions Juives (GCQJ), created by Vichy, and published in the newspaper "Le Matin" on 5 August 1941 an article entitled "Comment reconna?tre les Juifs?”which was a veritable call to denounce.

?4,232 Jews (men aged between 18 and 50), arrested in Paris between 20 and 24 August, were put on buses and parked in the Drancy camp, which was inaugurated for the occasion.        

In 1934, Egon Freiherr von Eicksted (one of Nazi Germany's main race theorists), author of The Theory of Race and the Racial History of Mankind, again distinguished three "geographical groups" (Caucasian, Mongoloid and Negroid) which he subdivided into 36 "races" or "sub-races".

Egon Freiherr von Eicksted, Rassenkunde und Rassengeschichte der Menschheit (1934). Stuttgart?: Enke Ed.

Race: A Social Construction ? -

It was in the 1970s that scientists discovered that the characteristics used to describe breeds were not stable and that they varied as a result of selective pressure from the environment and/or chance. It was observed that every population, however small, is genetically variable, and that there is much more genetic diversity between individuals in the same racial group than between individuals belonging to a group made up of different "races".

Genetic analysis does reveal differences between current human populations, but these are differences in gene frequencies, not genes that are entirely present in one population and entirely absent in another. These differences in gene frequency cannot be used to classify 'individuals', but rather arbitrarily defined 'populations', based on statistical criteria that are also random. Depending on the genes and populations used, the result is very different classifications, inconsistent with each other and unrelated to immediately visible characteristics

We have to admit that Homo sapiens species cannot be broken down into biologically pure races.? This vision corresponds to a logic that is now scientifically outdated, ignoring the extraordinary combinatorial and multiplicative nature of gene expression, as well as the major importance of interactions between the "genome" and the "epigenome" (intrinsic or extrinsic factors linked to the environment).

Information is provided by coding molecules : DNA and RNA, while the function is directed by proteins (enzymes).

- The transition from the genome (DNA) to the transcriptome (RNA), then from the transcriptome (RNA) to the proteome (proteins), and finally from the proteome to the metabolome (interactions between proteins and/or between proteins and nucleic acids) can lead to a cascade of highly diverse patterns in the functional organisation of organisms.

Piotr Slomniski Origine de la vie, in " La question des origines " Raison présente .n°92 (1989) Paris : NER Ed

Luca Cavalli-Sforza Gènes, peuples et langues (1996). Paris: Odile Jacob Ed

The sequencing of the human genome has made it possible to advance our knowledge, pointing out that all genetic systems show a high level of polymorphism, meaning that a given gene can present different varieties (alleles).

- Genetic polymorphism (from the Greek "poly" meaning many and "morphê" meaning ( form) is the coexistence, in a population, of several alleles for a given gene or locus. This polymorphism corresponds to variations in the DNA nucleotide sequence of a gene in the population.

There are around 20,000 genes in the human genome, corresponding to almost 3 billion nucleotides (the basic molecules of DNA) and over 4 million differences between each individual in the same population.

???????? Geneticist Craig Venter, a pioneer in genome sequencing, can now coolly announce that "The concept of race has no genetic or scientific basis...".

Craig Venter, A Life Decoded, My Genome: My life, (2007) New York :Viking Adult Ed,

From now on, therefore, we need to think of race as something other than purely biological heredity, as essentially a social construct developed from collective practices and experiences.

Leaving aside any reference to physical aspects, geographical origins or cultural and ethical considerations, it is clear that the Homo sapiens species can in no way be divided into 'races' that correspond to a scientifically coherent logic.

The Other is definitely not I ! -

In the 19th century, racism was founded on a biological basis. Starting from the premise that there were human groups called "races", it was assumed that the members of each "race" shared a common genetic heritage (presumed to be pure) which determined their intellectual, moral and physical aptitudes

At the beginning of the 20th century, a political, intellectual and media elite adhered to the ideology of the hierarchy of human races, which implied that the quality of their genetic heritage gave certain races the right (and perhaps even the duty) to dominate others.

From now on, we need to think of race as something other than purely biological heredity, as essentially a social construct developed from collective practices and experiences. This is why the new racist ideologies believe in all good faith that 'race' is a natural homeland based on the community of origin, and an elevated and respectable form of identity-based patriotism.

Gaston Méry Jean Révolte (1892) Paris: Dentu Ed.

The Homeland is an identity of belonging that can be chosen between two models:

- A "Root" identity, fixed in a hierarchical conformism.        

- A "Rhizome" identity, which brings together and intermingles cultures and individuals of all origins, as part of a diffusion that ignores any form of subordination or hierarchy.        

When relations of domination persist at the very heart of the new racist ideologies ("Racine" identity), this can be seen as a reaction of "identity patriotism", originating in the desire to protect the "identity" of the original community, stricken by a "social disease", which manifests itself in :

xenophobia (hatred of foreigners); hatred of diversity; fear of otherness;

resentment; intolerance ;

and an incredible blindness to the infinite treasures offered by human differences.

?

So… am "I” another" ?

For Maryse Condé, alternative Nobel Prize of litterature in 2018, who has been at once Guadeloupean , French, ?New Indian, African and American, always on the lookout for elsewhere, for the other,and also for herself, I is openness to others, respect for the strangeness of the other. It is bringing a bit of light, a bit of beauty, a bit of poetry into a world that is in dire need of it.