Faunes sauvages et sociétés humaines sur les îles méditerranéennes : exemples corses

During the Holocene, the endemic mammal faunas of the Mediterranean islands were completely replaced by non-endemic modem ones whose specific diversity is very low, whose composition is changed by anthropogenic introductions and whose demographic densities are possibly lowered. This process, initiated by humons and their activities, has created peculiar biogeographic conditions to human societies. The analysis of several examples from archaeology (Pre-Neolithic and Early Neolithic), history (XVI^th century) and ethnology, mainly in Corsica, show that this situation deeply influenced human behaviour, in the economy (hunter-gatherers andfirst Neolithic societies) as well as in social values of modem hunting and in the System of representations for wild animals (symbolical bestiary). Some of the modalities of these changes are drawn from the analysis of the examples. The author shows how this aspect of insular anthropology must be more systematically investigated, for itself as well as for its ecological consequences on game.