métissage

Métissage is a French term meaning "mixing" that is used to describe the blending of racial, ethnic, cultural, or biological elements. Historically applied to human populations, it has been used in discussions of interracial unions and the offspring of such unions, and more broadly to refer to cultural syncretism and the creation of hybrid identities and practices.

In social and historical contexts, métissage has appeared in colonial and postcolonial discourse to characterize the interactions between colonizers and colonized peoples, often linked to creolization and the formation of new social groups. The term has also been associated with legal and political debates, as colonial administrations and nation-states have alternately regulated, discouraged, or valorized mixed unions and identities.

In cultural studies, métissage denotes artistic and literary forms that combine traditions, languages, and aesthetics from different origins. Writers, musicians, and visual artists have used the concept to explore identity, memory, and resistance to cultural essentialism. In biology and anthropology the related idea of hybridization describes genetic mixing across populations or species, though métissage is seldom used in technical scientific contexts.

The term can be contentious: it may be embraced as a celebration of diversity and innovation or criticized for glossing over power imbalances, erasure of distinct traditions, or romanticizing mixing. Contemporary scholarship treats métissage critically, examining how processes of mixing intersect with race, class, gender, and colonial histories.