Venue du fond des âges, plus que toute autre maladie contagieuse peut-être, la syphilis (associée aux autres pathologies vénériennes) incarne les tensions d’un monde qui se mondialise à partir du XVI^e siècle avec une phase d’accélération au XIX^e siècle. Si l’on suit Alain Corbin dans la description qu’il donne de « l’image composite du péril vénérien, spectre inédit, dont les traits originaux […] ne s’effaceront pas avant les années médianes du XX^e siècle », alors s’impose à notre étude une épidémie lente dont Peter Baldwin saisit la dynamique entre « prostitution et promiscuité » et met en lumière les « velléités de régulation » qui tentent de se superposer aux dynamiques de circulations. Le colloque souhaite donc conjuguer une pluralité de contexte (colonial, métropolitain …) et une perspective de temps long avec l’expérience contemporaine d’une épidémie de syphilis qui connaît une recrudescence.

Argument

With almost 500 cases diagnosed in France in 2015, syphilis has not disappeared yet. After decades of dormancy that followed the spread of treatment through antibiotics, the pale Treponema, which has been on a constant rise, is now emerging, and taking advantage of the slackening of STD prevention practices. On a local scale, the disease may even become epidemic (44 cases were diagnosed in Brive-la-Gaillarde in 2015 alone). Still, the current sanitary conditions are not comparable at all with those of the mid-19^th century, and not even to those of 1922 when, as reported by Virginie De Luca, “the commission on prevention of venereal diseases estimated they cost 140.000 lives” (stillbirths, abortions due to pathologies, infant or adult deaths) and caused a ratio of 1 sick adult out of 10. And yet, the “scourge of Naples” is still challenging society and medicine. The very nature of syphilis both frightens and fascinates. A shameful disease contracted in the intimacy of the bedroom, it has been questioning our societies for many centuries now, notably their morals, their capacity to medically and therapeutically innovate, as well as their arrangements for the enforcement of a public health policy or their will to assume an efficient healthcare policy. Although those questions are not recent, they remain deeply rooted in our relationship to the disease and to the bodies, which can be severely bruised in the third stage of its evolution.

Coming from ancient times, syphilis (along with other venereal diseases), maybe more than any other contagious disease, embodies the tensions of a world that started globalising from the 16^th century on, with a pace quickening in the 19^th century. If we stick to Alain Corbin’s description of “the composite image of the venereal peril, an unprecedented spectre whose original features […] were to last until the mid-20^th century”, we cannot but study a slowly-spreading epidemic whose dynamics Peter Baldwin situates between “prostitution and promiscuity” before shedding light on the “vague desire for control” that is attempting to superimpose on the dynamics of movement. Under the supervision of these two references made by historians, the main topic of this symposium is to propose a convergence between thoughts emanating from historians, anthropologists and doctors with a focus on the “shock” caused by the encounter of the pale Treponema with societies on a municipal scale, and particularly in harbour cities. We would like this symposium to be placed in the context of a global thought on Cities, Urban Societies and Syphilis in the Mediterranean (from the 16^th to the 21^st Centuries), without excluding the propositions that would go beyond this strict geographical context. Therefore, the symposium aims at combining a multiplicity of contexts (colonial, metropolitan…) and a long-time perspective with the contemporary experience of a growing syphilis epidemic.

The symposium’s epistemological choice is to propose miscellaneous views and approaches. Joint analyses of historical and biological archives reveal the need for patterns of diffusion and expression of syphilis on the scale of a city, a merchant harbour or a military one. The paleopathological and archeothanatological evidences are scarce in the modern and contemporary periods, notably concerning Mediterranean shores, Thus they do not allow either grasping or supporting the sociological and anthropological context that shrouds the cases of persons struck or killed by “smallpox”. On the long term, and logically, the paleopathological and historical debate on the origins of syphilis seems to have remained a central question. Far beyond the question of its origins, the contributions to the symposium are expected to propose extensive readings of the relationship between syphilis and harbour societies. This symposium is therefore unusual in its ambition to initiate a dialogue between diverse subjects (medicine, epidemiology and public health, history, geography, funeral anthropology, social anthropology, sociology) on a single topic and in a common scope.

The symposium will be articulated in 3 sessions aiming at documenting and giving useful information about the spread of the disease on the scale of a city, a harbour and notably a Mediterranean territory. In the concern of comparing the ways of diffusion as well as the sources, contributions about other geographical areas will obviously be welcome. As long as they concern a municipal scale or harbour context (be it civil or military)--- or if they deal with enclosed spaces l(ike enclaves or geographically, culturally or socially-isolated populations).

The symposium will start with communications dealing with very contemporary medical issues (Session 1 - Cities, Urban Societies and Syphilis in the Mediterranean: Current Medical Data). These contributions will be based on issues linked with the diagnosis and the epidemiology of syphilis, with the methods of prevention and the way public health policies get down to work, or with the available therapeutic solutions. The symposium will then move on to diachronic perspectives (Session 2 - Cities, Urban Societies and Syphilis in the Mediterranean: Historical Context and Medical-historical Inferences). To finish, the anthropological dimension will be taken into account (Session 3 - Cities, Urban Societies and Syphilis in the Mediterranean: Anthropological Approach). Beyond the paleopathological and archeothanatological contexts, this final session will try to broach the evolution of social constructions or the field of the different representations of the disease.

Registration

Registration fees will be 60 euros (25 for students). Moreover the participation in the meeting dinner will be about 30 euros

Submission guidelines

Oral and poster communications posters can be included only for the session 1 and 3 (case reports, short report etc..)

Abstracts, posters and oral communication files: exclusively in French or English

Spoken language of the oral communication : French or English

the abstract should include :

•  a text (in Microsoft Office Word or compatible format) containing inflormations concerning the main goals (and eventually sample, methods) results, discussion or final considerations;
•  Title;
•  Author(s) and institutional address(es);
•  Email;
•  Text (maximum of 1000 words
•  The session in which you will present
•  Keywords between 3 and 5 (which shall not appear in the title of the abstract)

Those interested in participating must submit by email (syphilis.marenostrum@gmail.com)  

until april, 25th 2017

Organizing committee

• Benoît Pouget (IEP d’Aix-en-Provence/CHERPA/ADèS)
• Yann Ardagna (UMR 7268 Adès)
• Michel Signoli (UMR 7268 Adès)
• Laetitia Delouis (Chargé de Communication faculté médecine Marseille)

Contact : syphilis.marenostrum@gmail.com

Scientific committee

• Yann Ardagna (UMR 7268 Adès)
• Philippe Berbis  (AMU/ UMR 7268 Adès)
• Philippe Biaggini (UMR 7268 Adès)
• Philippe Bourmaud (Lyon III/LAHRAT)
• Patrick Bourreille (Service Historique de la Défense)
• Walter Bruyère-Ostells (IEP d’Aix-en-Provence/CHERPA)
• Dominique Chevé (UMR 7268 Adès)
• Guillemette Crouzet (Univ. Genève)
• Michel Drancourt (IHU Méditerranée Infection)
•  Nicolas Dupin (APHP)
• Yannick Jaffré (CNRS/UMI Environnement, Santé, Société)
• Pierre Le Coz (UMR 7268 Adès, EEM)
• Patrick Louvier (Montpellier III/ CRISES)
• Jean Jacques Morand (HIA Sainte Anne – Toulon)
• Benoît Pouget (IEP d’Aix-en-Provence/CHERPA/ UMR 7268 Adès)
• Isabelle Renaudet (AMU/TELEMME)
• Lisa Rosner (Stockton University – New Jersey)
• Michel Signoli (UMR 7268 Adès)
• Salvatore Speziale (Université de Messine)
• Thomas Vaisset (Service Historique de la Défense)