Museum Manifesto. Migrations

The variation in the living world, and in humans as living creatures, is general, as is the propensity of life to spread in terms of space and time. Thus, diversification, migrations and contacts have been and remain key factors in the continuity of lineages of living beings, humans included.

“Currently, the conditions under which people are leaving their countries have sparked numerous controversies. 2018, with its myriad political shifts on the subject, attests to this controversy, be it over boats attempting to cross the Mediterranean or border crossings between the United States and Mexico. Collectively, we label the people involved in these movements ‘migrants’. Through the magnifying glass of the media, we forget how few their numbers actually are compared with human mobility as a whole. Through the magnifying glass of politics, the theme of ‘migrant crisis’ is ably exploited”.

This manifesto was drafted by a committee formed in 2018 at the initiative of palaeontologist Bruno David, President of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN). The committee was chaired by Frédérique Chlous, ethnologist, professor, and head of the MNHN’s Humans and the Environment Department, with for managing editor Guillaume Lecointre, zoologist, systematician and scientific advisor to the President of the Muséum. The committee members include: Aline Averbouh ◊ Frédérique Chlous ◊ Bruno David ◊ Évelyne Heyer ◊ Frédéric Jiguet ◊ Hervé Le Bras ◊ Guillaume Lecointre ◊ Jacques Lévy ◊ Sylvie Mazzella ◊ Gilles Pison ◊ Jocelyne Streiff-Fenart ◊ Christine Verna ◊ Yves Charles Zarka.