La construction de la préhistoire hors d’Europe: Introduction au dossier Préhistoire sous les tropiques

From the second half of the 19th century, prehis- tory developed, both theoretically and in the field, according to a European model. Concepts and vocabulary, but also collec- tions and European sites, were established as axioms. This construction of prehistory took place during the expansion of ethnographic missions and colonial empires. This European prehistory with universal ambitions had to take into account an otherness, current and embodied by the savage, which had become an object of study for the emerging human sciences. From a historiographical point of view, many relationships remain to be clarified with regard to the interactions between European prehistory and the construction of a prehistory beyond Europe