The choice of the expression «History of the Maghreb Pasteur institutes» is suggestive of a post-colonial approach and raises questions about the shared future of those centres. The author offers a comparative view of the past of the Institutes in Tunis, Algiers and Casablanca, relying on recent research in social sciences and the development of oral history. The Institutes were created separately at different times but more or less followed a single model linking research, production, and teaching. Fighting infectious diseases was part of the colonial heritage, but it was above all the promise of modernisation linked to participation in the Pastorian Revolution that explains why the three Institutes never discontinued their activities in the three Southern Mediterranean capitals. At the turn of the 21th century, the Pasteur Institutes of the Maghreb, in common with the mother Institute in Paris, were faced by new challenges in a changing political and epidemiological context. The International Pasteur Institutes Network was formally established in 2003. What is the future of the Maghreb Institutes? Will they form a separate entity? And what links will they create with the rest of the world, especially the Arab World? These questions are both scientific and political.

Le choix de l'expression "histoire des instituts Pasteur du Maghreb" suggère un angle d'approche post-colonial et une interrogation sur le devenir commun de ces instituts. L'auteur propose une relecture transversale et comparative de leur passé, à la lumière des recherches récentes en sciences sociales et des données de l'histoire orale en cours de recueil. Les instituts Pasteur d'Alger, Tunis, Tanger et Casablanca ont été créés séparément à différentes périodes de la colonisation française, avec un objectif commun d'application des méthodes et des doctrines pasteuriennes et d'amélioration de la santé publique, mais ont connu des péripéties assez différentes pour justifier le terme de "mémoire divisée". Si la lutte contre les maladies infectieuses faisait partie de l'idéologie du pouvoir colonial, c'est la promesse de modernité liée à la "révolution pasteurienne", qui explique la pérennisation de l'entreprise et la survie présente des trois instituts dans les capitales du Maghreb. Au XXIe siècle, les instituts Pasteur du Maghreb sont confrontés comme la maison-mère de Paris, dans un contexte scientifique et politique changeant, à l'évolution de leur modèle original de fonctionnement, associant étroitement recherche-production-formation. Dans le cadre du Réseau International des Instituts Pasteur formalisé en 2003, se pose la question de l'autonomisation future d'un ensemble constitué par les instituts Pasteur du Maghreb? Emergeront-ils comme une entité à part entière, et quels liens entretiendront-ils au sein du réseau et avec le reste du monde, en particulier avec le monde arabe? Autant de questions à la fois politiques et scientifiques.

A partir de uma visão crítica sobre as interpretações correntes a respeito da história da vacinação, seja na vertente negativa seja na linha triunfalista, o artigo chama a atenção para a complexidade do fenômeno vacinal, revelada ao se adotar uma perspectiva que combine as ciências biológicas e sociais. Na perspectiva de uma antropologia das vacinas e da vacinação é possível revelar as múltiplas facetas históricas e geográficas de uma história aparentemente única, e se interrogar a respeito da unidade caleidoscópica das práticas humanas. Não existe uma única história da vacinação, mas sim vacinas que surgiram em diferentes períodos e países. Uma das conseqüências dessa abordagem foi a substituição do conceito de resistência das populações às campanhas de imunização pelo de aceitabilidade, sugerindo-se que a seleção de um conjunto de procedimentos para imunizar uma população constitui uma hipótese a avaliar diante da história.

The article calls attention to the complexity of immunization by vaccine, from a perspective that combines the biological and social sciences and takes a critical view of current interpretations on the history of vaccination, whether negative or triumphalist. An anthropological look at vaccines and vaccination reveals the multiple historical and geographical facets of what appears to be a unique phenomenon, while also prompting questions about the kaleidoscopic unity of human practices. There is no single history of vaccination but a history of vaccines that have been used in different periods and countries. One consequence of this approach is that the concept of public resistance to immunization campaigns is replaced by acceptability, which suggests that selecting the procedures to employ when immunizing a given population is a hypothesis that should be evaluated based on history.

A imunologia legitimou-se ao tornar-se a ciência do sistema imunológico - esta definição marcou a existência de uma nova função até então desconhecida entre as funções corporais - o próprio conceito de sistema imunológico ultrapassa o biológico e possibilita o estabelecimento de um diálogo específico entre a ciência biológica e as ciências humanas. Este artigo trata das inúmeras versões existentes sobre o sistema imunológico.

Immunology gained legitimacy when it became the science of the immune system, a definition that announced the existence of a previously unknown body function. The very concept of immune system goes beyond the biological, offering opportunities for a renewed dialogue between biological science and the human sciences. This paper discusses the manifold viewpoints regarding the immune system.