"What, for instance, could our notion of the “supernatural” mean for peoples who have no such sense of a “natural” realm composed of mindless, nonhuman realia subject only to their own laws?”
(Sahlins, Forword in Descola 2013, Beyond Nature and Culture, xiii)
Welcome to the Reading Group on Descola's Ontolgies
Philippe Descola Descola, held the Chair in the Anthropology of Nature at the Collège de France (2000-2019), has built on his ethnographic research with the Achuar of the Upper Amazon to contribute to the comparative study of human-nonhuman relations. His most widely known contribution has been the development of a framework that displaces the assumed universality of the Western nature/culture dichotomy by providing models of four possible ontological modes of structural relations through which humans and nonhumans form viable collectives. This research takes the form of a book Beyond Nature and Culture (2013 [2005]) showing how the differences between the four ontological modes are made evident in the investigation of processes of iconic figuration.
Our reading group aims at reading the first five chapters of Beyond Nature and Culture constituting the theoretical basis of Descola's four ontologies (animism, totemism, analogism, and naturalism)
Schedule and readings
Meetings will take place Fridays from 10:00-12:00, Seminarraum, Institute für Wissensgeschichte des Altertums (Arnimallee 10)
| Date | Reading |
|---|---|
| Chapter 1: Configurations of Continuity & Chapter 2: The Wild and the Domesticated | |
| Chapter 3: The Great Divide & Chapter 4: The Schemas of Practice | |
| Brake | |
Chapter 5: Relations with the Self and Relations with Others Chapter 6: Animism Restored Chapter 7: Totemism as an Ontology | |
| TBC |
Additional References
- Descola, P. (2014). Anthropology of Nature : Inaugural lecture delivered on Thursday 29 March 2001. In Anthropology of Nature : Inaugural lecture delivered on Thursday 2 March 2001. Paris : Collège de France. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/books.cdf.3631 )
- Descola, P. (2014). Modes of being and forms of predication. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 4 (1), 271-280. (Doi: https://doi.org/10.14318/hau4.1.012.)
- Descola, P. (2014). The grid and the tree: Reply to Marshall Sahlins’ comment. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 4 (1), 295-300. (Doi: https://doi.org/10.14318/hau4.1.015.)
- Descola. (2016). Biolatry: A Surrender of Understanding (Response to Ingold’s “A Naturalist Abroad in the Museum of Ontology”). Anthropological Forum, 26(3), 321–328. https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2016.1212523
- Kelly, J. D. (2014). Introduction: The ontological turn in French philosophical anthropology. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 4 (1), 259-269. (Doi: https://doi.org/10.14318/hau4.1.011.)
- Ingold. (2016). A Naturalist Abroad in the Museum of Ontology: Philippe Descola’s Beyond Nature and Culture. Anthropological Forum, 26(3), 301–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2015.1136591
- Sahlins, M. (2014). On the ontological scheme of Beyond nature and culture. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 4 (1), 281-290. (Doi: https://doi.org/10.14318/hau4.1.013.)
Meeting
There was a time, and not so very long ago, when one discussed science in literary salons. […] Whereas D’Alembert dissolved in an ocean of sensitive molecules, Stephen Hawking announces in A Brief History of Time (1988) without any levity the imminent triumph of human reason: the reduction of the universe to a pure mathematical necessity. No longer do our speculations explore those limit points where theories lose the gravitas of their familiar power. Instead, they judge the world in the name of the power of theory.
Isabelle Stengers (Relearning to Laugh, 2000, 41)
Welcome to the Reading Group 'bookworms'
We meet regularly throughout the year to discuss topics of interest to a broad range of disciplines. We hope to be inspired by the exchange of ideas and experiences.
We usually discuss one article or book chapter each session.
Reading List
We welcome suggestions for readings and encourage you to edit this page
Meeting
Time: TBA
Place: Institut für Wissensgeschichte des Altertums, Arnimallee 10
Policy
Our reading group is visible and accessible to invited members only.
Current participants are: Cale Johnson, Nehemie Strupler
Contact
Néhémie Strupler
Freie Universität Berlin
Fachbereichs Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften
Institut für Wissensgeschichte des Altertums
Arnimallee 10
14195 Berlin (Germany)
nehemie.strupler@fu-berlin.de
