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In this autobiographical reflection, the distinguished
anthropologist Philippe Descola looks back on his intellectual
career and examines both the central themes of his work and the key
questions that have shaped anthropological debates over the last
forty years. A student of Lévi-Strauss, Descola did
ethnographic research among the Achuar of the upper Amazon in the
late 1970s, focussing on how native societies relate to their
environment. In this book he sheds fresh light on the
evolution of his thinking from structuralism to an anthropology
beyond the human, on the critique of the modern separation between
nature and society, and above all on the genesis and scope of his
master work Beyond Nature and Culture. This synthesis of the
ways in which humans view their relationships with
other-than-humans proposes four major 'compositions of worlds'
(animism, naturalism, totemism, analogism) that characterise our
ways of inhabiting the earth. Presented in the form of an extended
conversation with Pierre Charbonnier, this book is both a lucid
introduction to the work of one of the most original
anthropologists writing today and an impassioned plea for a
pluralism of ontologies that would be more welcoming to the
diversity of beings.
In this autobiographical reflection, the distinguished
anthropologist Philippe Descola looks back on his intellectual
career and examines both the central themes of his work and the key
questions that have shaped anthropological debates over the last
forty years. A student of Lévi-Strauss, Descola did
ethnographic research among the Achuar of the upper Amazon in the
late 1970s, focussing on how native societies relate to their
environment. In this book he sheds fresh light on the
evolution of his thinking from structuralism to an anthropology
beyond the human, on the critique of the modern separation between
nature and society, and above all on the genesis and scope of his
master work Beyond Nature and Culture. This synthesis of the
ways in which humans view their relationships with
other-than-humans proposes four major 'compositions of worlds'
(animism, naturalism, totemism, analogism) that characterise our
ways of inhabiting the earth. Presented in the form of an extended
conversation with Pierre Charbonnier, this book is both a lucid
introduction to the work of one of the most original
anthropologists writing today and an impassioned plea for a
pluralism of ontologies that would be more welcoming to the
diversity of beings.
Series Information: European Association of Social Anthropologists
The contributors to this book focus on the relationship between nature and society from a variety of theoretical and ethnographic perspectives. Their work draws upon recent developments in social theory, biology, ethnobiology, epistemology, sociology of science, and a wide array of ethnographic case studies -- from Amazonia, the Solomon Islands, Malaysia, the Mollucan Islands, rural comunities from Japan and north-west Europe, urban Greece, and laboratories of molecular biology and high-energy physics. The discussion is divided into three parts, emphasising the problems posed by the nature-culture dualism, some misguided attempts to respond to these problems, and potential avenues out of the current dilemmas of ecological discourse.
Successor to Claude Levi-Strausa at the College de France, Philippe
Descola has become one of the most important anthropologists
working today, and Beyond Nature and Culture has been a major
influence in European intellectual life since its publication in
2005. Here, finally, it is brought to English-language readers. At
its heart is a question central to both anthropology and
philosophy: what is the relationship between nature and culture?
Culture - as a collective human making, of art, language, and so
forth - is often seen as essentially different than nature, which
is portrayed as a collective of the nonhuman world, of plants,
animals, geology, and natural forces. Descola shows this essential
difference to be, however, not only a specifically Western notion,
but also a very recent one. Drawing on ethnographic examples from
around the world and theoretical understandings from cognitive
science, structural analysis, and phenomenology, he formulates a
sophisticated new framework, the "four ontologies" - animism,
totemism, naturalism, and analogism - to account for all the ways
we relate ourselves to nature. By thinking beyond nature and
culture as a simple dichotomy, Descola offers nothing short of a
fundamental reformulation by which anthropologists and philosophers
can see the world afresh.
The Achuar Indians of the Upper Amazon have developed sophisticated strategies of resource management. The author documents their knowledge of the environment, and explains how it is interwoven with cosmological ideas that endow nature with the characteristics of society.
The Achuar Indians of the Upper Amazon have developed sophisticated strategies of resource management. The author documents their knowledge of the environment, and explains how it is interwoven with cosmological ideas that endow nature with the characteristics of society.
Since the end of the nineteenth century, the division between
nature and culture has been fundamental to Western thought. In this
groundbreaking work, renowned anthropologist Philippe Descola seeks
to break down this divide, arguing for a departure from the
anthropocentric model and its rigid dualistic conception of nature
and culture as distinct phenomena. In its stead, Descola proposes a
radical new worldview, in which beings and objects, human and
nonhuman, are understood through the complex relationships between
them. The "Ecology of Others" presents a compelling challenge to
anthropologists, ecologists, and environmental studies scholars to
rethink the way we conceive of humans, objects, and the
environment. Thought-provoking and engagingly written, it will be
required reading for all those interested in moving beyond the
current confines of this fascinating debate.
The Achuar people have survived in isolation in the Amazonian
jungle by aggressively resisting intruders. In this book, Descola
depicts an altogether unfamiliar civilisation, whose values often
seem bizarre to Western eyes.
Successor to Claude Levi-Strauss at the College de France, Philippe
Descola has become one of the most important anthropologists
working today, and Beyond Nature and Culture has been a major
influence in European intellectual life since its French
publication in 2005. Here, finally, it is brought to
English-language readers. At its heart is a question central to
both anthropology and philosophy: what is the relationship between
nature and culture? Culture - as a collective human making, of art,
language, and so forth - is often seen as essentially different
than nature, which is portrayed as a collective of the nonhuman
world, of plants, animals, geology, and natural forces. Descola
shows this essential difference to be, however, not only a
specifically Western notion, but also a very recent one. Drawing on
ethnographic examples from around the world and theoretical
understandings from cognitive science, structural analysis, and
phenomenology, he formulates a sophisticated new framework, the
"four ontologies" - animism, totemism, naturalism, and analogism -
to account for all the ways we relate ourselves to nature. By
thinking beyond nature and culture as a simple dichotomy, Descola
offers nothing short of a fundamental reformulation by which
anthropologists and philosophers can see the world afresh.
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