"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?”
(ShalinsSahlins, Forword in Descola 2013, Beyond Nature and Culture, xiii)
Welcome to the Reading Group on
Descola0sDescola's Ontolgies
Shaping, using, recycling, or discarding objects frame our world by simultaneously entangling material, social and symbolic dimensions. André Leroi-Gourhan (1911-1986), a french paleontologist, developed methods of excavation and recording to reconstruct the underlying temporal sequences and spatial organization into technological processes. His approach shifted the focus from the study of objects and their classification (typology) toward the physical actions they embody as “cultural techniques”. He famously showed how smaller gestures are wove together to form complex technologies as the product of chaînes opératoires. This understanding of gesture not only as a social product, but also as a foundational element of society laid the ground to an enduring legacy on cultural anthropology of technology.
Leroi-Gourhan’s approach is a source of reflection, and some of his concepts are widely used tools toward the study of material culture. During the SoSe 2022, our reading group will focus on Leroi-Gourhan writings and legacy,
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
We aim at meeting every two weeks for five meetings. Meetings will take place Thursday from 14:00-16:00, Seminarraum, Institute für Wissensgeschichte des Altertums (Arnimallee 10)
PAPERS DOWNLOAD: CLICK THIS LINK
Tentative schedule and readings (TBC)
May 5: Introduction & Precursors: Leroi-Gourhan’s Infrastructure?
Mauss 1973 [1936]: “Techniques of the body”Schüttpelz 2010: “Körpertechniken”
May 19: Leroi-Gourhan’s Portrait & Theory: ! MEETING AT 15:00 s.t.
Leroi Gourhan 1993: Gesture and Speech p. 219-242
Audouze 2012: “Leroi-Gourhan, a Philosopher of Technique”
June 9th: Chaîne opératoire uses: 14:00 c.t.
Tafelmaier (2020), Der Chaîne opératoire-Ansatz
Bray (2020) Thinking with Diagrams
Škrabal (2019) Writing before Inscribing
June ??: Reception:
Ingold 1999: An appreciation of Leroi-Gourhan
| 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. (
References
Audouze, F. (2002). Leroi-Gourhan, a Philosopher of Technique and Evolution. Journal of Archaeological Research, 10(4), 277–306. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41053189
Hildebrandt, T (2011): Bild, Geste und Hand. Leroi-Gourhans paläontologische Bildtheorie. In: IMAGE. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft. Heft 14, Jg. 7, Nr. 2, S. 76–88.- DOI: https://doi.org/10.
Ingold, T. (1999). `Tools for the hand, language for the face’: An appreciation of Leroi-Gourhan’s gesture and speech. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 30 (4):411-453.
- 4000/books.cdf.3631 )
- Descola, P. (2014). Modes of being and forms of predication. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 4 (1), 271-280. (Doi
- 012.
- )
- Descola,
- P. (
Mauss M. (1973 [1936]) ‘Techniques of the body’, translated by Ben Brewster, Economy and Society 2: 70–88.
Bar‐Yosef O. and P. Van Peer (2009): The Chaîne Opératoire Approach in Middle Paleolithic Archaeology Current Anthropology 2009 50:1, 103-131
Schüttpelz E., Körpertechniken, Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturforschung 1/2010: “Kulturtechnik” DOI- 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.
Tresch J. (2019): Leroi-Gourhan’s Hall of Gestures. In Douglas Kahn, ed. Energies in the Arts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 193-238.
Meeting
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
Techniques involve both gestures and tools, sequentially organized by means of a ‘syntax’ that imparts both fixity and flexibility to the series of operations involved. This operating syntax is suggested by the memory and comes into being as a product of the brain and the physical environment. If pursue the parallel with language, we find a similar process taking place.”
(Leroi-Gourhan 1993, 114)
Welcome to the Reading Group 'Cross-linking Leroi-Gourhan’s legacy
Shaping, using, recycling, or discarding objects frame our world by simultaneously entangling material, social and symbolic dimensions. André Leroi-Gourhan (1911-1986), a french paleontologist, developed methods of excavation and recording to reconstruct the underlying temporal sequences and spatial organization into technological processes. His approach shifted the focus from the study of objects and their classification (typology) toward the physical actions they embody as “cultural techniques”. He famously showed how smaller gestures are wove together to form complex technologies as the product of chaînes opératoires. This understanding of gesture not only as a social product, but also as a foundational element of society laid the ground to an enduring legacy on cultural anthropology of technology.
Leroi-Gourhan’s approach is a source of reflection, and some of his concepts are widely used tools toward the study of material culture. During the SoSe 2022, our reading group will focus on Leroi-Gourhan writings and legacy,
We aim at meeting every two weeks for five meetings. Meetings will take place Thursday from 14:00-16:00, Seminarraum, Institute für Wissensgeschichte des Altertums (Arnimallee 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
PAPERS DOWNLOAD: CLICK THIS LINK
Tentative schedule and readings (TBC)
May 5: Introduction & Precursors: Leroi-Gourhan’s Infrastructure?
Mauss 1973 [1936]: “Techniques of the body”Schüttpelz 2010: “Körpertechniken”
May 19: Leroi-Gourhan’s Portrait & Theory: ! MEETING AT 15:00 s.t.
Leroi Gourhan 1993: Gesture and Speech p. 219-242
Audouze 2012: “Leroi-Gourhan, a Philosopher of Technique”
June 2: Leroi-Gourhan’s Methods:
Leroi-Gourhan 1993: “Gesture and Speech” p. 242-269
Bar‐Yosef 2009: “The Chaîne Opératoire Approach”
June 16: Reception:
Ingold 1999: An appreciation of Leroi-Gourhan
(alternative: Ingold 2021: Posthuman Prehistory)
June 30: Reception in “Media Studies”:
Hildebrandt 2011: Bild, Geste und Hand
Tresch 2019: Leroi-Gourhan’s Hall of Gesture
References
Audouze, F. (2002). Leroi-Gourhan, a Philosopher of Technique and Evolution. Journal of Archaeological Research, 10(4), 277–306. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41053189
Hildebrandt, T (2011): Bild, Geste und Hand. Leroi-Gourhans paläontologische Bildtheorie. In: IMAGE. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft. Heft 14, Jg. 7, Nr. 2, S. 76–88. DOI25969/mediarep/16576.Ingold, T. (1999). `Tools for the hand, language for the face’: An appreciation of Leroi-Gourhan’s gesture and speech. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 30 (4):411-453.
Ingold, T. (2021). Posthuman Prehistory, Nature and Culture, 16(1), 83-103 DOI:- 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.
- Sahlins,
- M. (
Mauss M. (1973 [1936]) ‘Techniques of the body’, translated by Ben Brewster, Economy and Society 2: 70–88.
Bar‐Yosef O. and P. Van Peer (2009): The Chaîne Opératoire Approach in Middle Paleolithic Archaeology Current Anthropology 2009 50:1, 103-131
Schüttpelz E., Körpertechniken, Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturforschung 1/2010: “Kulturtechnik” DOI- 2014). On the ontological scheme of Beyond nature and culture. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 4 (1), 281-290. (Doi: https://doi.org/10.
Meeting
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
