What is the use of a geneticist to an anthropologist, and vice versa: date palms in the Sahara

Lecture (in French) given for the Master conference « Agrobiodiversité » (AE/AST - UE 39 M2, coord. by Serge Bahuchet and François Léger),
at the Musée de l’Homme, Paris (France), October 10^th, 2018, 2pm-5pm

What is the use of a geneticist to an anthropologist, and vice versa: date palms in the Sahara
– Original title: À quoi sert un généticien à un anthropologue, et vice-versa : les dattiers au Sahara

– Intent:
Make a useful link between :

• A specialist in the domestication of a species over the millennia (genetics, evolutionary biology),
• A specialist in the domestication of an ecosystem (an ethnoecosystem: the oasis is an artificial bubble) over the short time of the present (anthropology, ethnoecology).

The initial idea: to establish the agrobiodiversity of a species, the date palm, and to do this first understand how this plant is thought (is good to think before being good to eat).

The approach of ethnoecology does not consist in validating or invalidating vernacular knowledge and know-how through science; the aim is rather to understand their internal logic and to see how they can inform the functioning of society as a whole.