The Jivaro tribe, or Achuar, as they prefer to be known, have survived in isolation in the Amazonian jungle by headhunting. They have preserved a tribal life which resembles that of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Only one representative of civilized society, Philippe Descola has been admitted to their company. This book depicts an unfamiliar civilization whose values are often bizarre to Western eyes. Over 20 years of increasing intimacy with the Achuar, Descola has produced a portrait of a culture no less complex than our own. He describes their myths, their interpretation of dreams and their concepts of time and nature and leadership.

The Spears of Twilight: Life and Death in the Amazon Jungle

Politics & Social Sciences

DESCOLA, Philippe

Social Sciences

Harpercollins

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 from 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.

Beyond Nature and Culture

Philosophy

University of Chicago Press

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 from 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.

In the Society of Nature: A Native Ecology in Amazonia (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Series Number 93)

Cambridge University Press

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 that they possess with one another. 
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 moving beyond the confines of this fascinating debate.

The Ecology of Others (Paradigm)

Prickly Paradigm Press

The Composition of Worlds: Interviews with Pierre Charbonnier

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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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&nbsp;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.

Biographies & Memoirs

Polity

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 past forty years. A student of Lévi-Strauss, Descola conducted ethnographic research among the Achuar of the upper Amazon in the late 1970s, focusing 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 major work&nbsp;Beyond Nature and Culture. This synthesis of the ways in which humans view their relationships with non-humans proposes four schemas for the 'composition of worlds' (animism, naturalism, totemism, analogism) that characterize 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 ontologies that are more accommodating of the diversity of beings.

An anthropologist describes his experiences living for three years with the Jivaro Indians in the isolated upper Amazon basin, discussing their daily life, mystical and ritualistic world, belligerant reputation, and social and cultural interaction.

History

Americas

New Pr

An anthropologist describes his experiences living with the Jivaro Indians in the Amazon basin

New Press, The

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Books by DESCOLA, Philippe

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by DESCOLA, Philippe. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Spears of Twilight: Life and Death in the Amazon Jungle

Beyond Nature and Culture

Beyond Nature and Culture

In the Society of Nature: A Native Ecology in Amazonia (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Series Number 93)

In the Society of Nature: A Native Ecology in Amazonia (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Series Number 93)

The Ecology of Others (Paradigm)

The Composition of Worlds: Interviews with Pierre Charbonnier

The Composition of Worlds: Interviews with Pierre Charbonnier

The Spears of Twilight: Life and Death in the Amazon Jungle

The Spears of Twilight: Life and Death in the Amazon Jungle