The role of military ethnography and scientific Orientalism in the French colonial project in Algeria: Eugene Daumas and Berbrugger models

Abstract

The efforts of the French army and the orientalists made it possible to consolidate the foundations of the colonization of Algeria by European settlers. Orientalist ethnographic studies contributed to erasing Algeria's cultural past and establishing a colonial thesis based on the revival of Roman history and considering the French occupation as a continuation. Two models were chosen for the study: General Eugene Daumas as an orientalist military ethnographer, and the archaeologist and orientalist Adrien Berbrugger. We sought to show the similarities and convergences between the military and the civilian in the service of the French colonization project in Algeria.