Papers by Philippe Descola
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2021
Desacatos. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 2017
A partir de una afirmación de Alejandro de Humboldt, este artículo revisa los orígenes del Antrop... more A partir de una afirmación de Alejandro de Humboldt, este artículo revisa los orígenes del Antropoceno y los asocia a un sistema, un modo de vida, una ideología, cuyas particularidades deben conocerse para intentar evitar algunas de sus consecuencias más dramáticas. Tres preguntas guían el texto: ¿cuándo comenzó esta nueva época de la historia de la Tierra que se denomina Antropoceno? ¿En qué consiste? ¿Qué aportes ofrecen las ciencias sociales para paliar sus efectos y tener un mejor futuro? Para ello, se propone repensar tres rocesos fundamentales en la relación de los humanos entre sí, y entre humanos y no humanos: adaptación, apropiación y representación.
Revista de Filosofia Aurora, 2016
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2014
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2014
Ningú no ignora el rol crucial que juga en l'obra de Claude Lévi-Strauss l'oposició contrastiva e... more Ningú no ignora el rol crucial que juga en l'obra de Claude Lévi-Strauss l'oposició contrastiva entre la natura i la cultura: la fa servir en contextos tan diversos i amb finalitats tan nombroses que ha acabat encarnant per a molts una de les característiques de la seva manera de pensar. Sabem també que Lévi-Strauss atribueix a Rousseau el mèrit d'haver fundat a la pràctica el camp de l'etnologia en inaugurar, en el Discurs sobre l'origen de la desigualtat, la reflexió sobre els lligams possibles entre aquests dos camps de fenòmens (Lévi-Strauss 1973: 46-47). És a dir que el problema de la tensió entre la natura i la cultura no és només al cor de l'antropologia estructural, és de fet el que defineix, als ulls dels seu fundador, l'àmbit de què s'ocupa l'etnologia i gràcies al qual pot pretendre una autonomia al si de les altres ciències de l'home. No obstant, l'estatut d'aquest parell conceptual no és fàcil de delimitar en l'obra de Lévi-Strauss: alhora eina analítica, escena filosòfica dels principis i antinòmia a superar, ell l'investeix d'una pluralitat de significats, de vegades contradictoris, que fan el seu ús altament productiu i la seva interpretació dificultosa. Aquest text vol contribuir a aclarir aquesta qüestió, sota la forma d'un balanç crític i d'un homenatge. Car cadascú de nosaltres només avança en la via per la que ha optat gràcies als progressos acomplerts per les generacions precedents i, des d'aquest punt de vista, no hi ha dubte que el segle XX, en antropologia, romandrà com el segle de Lévi-Strauss de tant com el seu pensament, fins i tot quan hom el rebutja, ha marcat vigorosament la concepció que hom pot fer-se d'aquesta ciència, del seu objecte i dels seus mètodes. El meu deute al seu respecte és encara més gran, per raons tant personals com intel•lectuals: entre aquestes darreres hi figuren en primer lloc la incitació a dedicar-me al tema mateix d'aquest assaig, les relacions de continuïtat i discontinuïtat entre la natura i la cultura, que va esdevenir molt aviat, gràcies a ell, l'eix principal de les meves reflexions i de la meva activitat
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2014
Revue internationale des sciences sociales, 2003
Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour Érès. © Érès. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. La r... more Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour Érès. © Érès. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit.
A Companion to the Anthropology of Religion, 2014
Most anthropologists dealing with non-Western societies tend to see the notion of "religion" as t... more Most anthropologists dealing with non-Western societies tend to see the notion of "religion" as translating very inadequately the range of phenomena they study. And it is true that none of the traditional defi nitions of religion is really satisfying. Those that emphasize the contents always miss at least one of them or, on the contrary, pile them on in excess. Marcel Mauss, for instance, who was quite aware that religion is neither an essence nor a substance and that it can only be identifi ed when embedded in social phenomena that are historically contextualized, classifi ed these phenomena as "representations" (myths, beliefs, dogma), "practices" (acts, performances, utterances), "organizations" (churches, colleges of priests, monasteries) and "religious systems" (particular religions or groups of religions) (Mauss 1902). By doing so, he left aside the very qualities that peoples infer in the beings (deities, gods, spirits, immortals, ghosts, genies. . .) with which humans maintain all kinds of relations that religious systems may qualify and foster; even though, most of the time, these beings do not require institutions for them to materialize and become operative in human life. In that matter as well as in a few others, Mauss followed his uncle and mentor Émile Durkheim, whose ambitions were to determine religion as an intelligible object-that is, as a reasonable one-and to render manifest the mechanism of its instauration-sacredness as a transfi guration of society-without ever having to ask the embarrassing questions about the attributes with which these "sacralized" nonhumans were endowed, or about the mode of presence through which they became CHAPTER 1
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2014
Notions like "nature" or "culture" do not denote a universal reality but a particular way, devise... more Notions like "nature" or "culture" do not denote a universal reality but a particular way, devised by the Moderns, of carving ontological domains in the texture of things. Other civilizations have devised different ways of detecting qualities among existents, resulting in other forms of organizing continuity and discontinuity between humans and nonhumans, of aggregating beings in collectives, of defining who or what is capable of agency and knowledge. The paper emphasizes that these processes of ontological predication are not "worldviews" but, properly speaking, styles of worlding. Ontology is taken here as designating a more elementary analytical level to study worlding than the one anthropology usually calls for. It is at this level, where basic inferences are made about the kinds of beings that exist and how they relate to each other, that anthropology can best fulfill its mission to account for how worlds are composed.
Cahiers philosophiques, 2011
Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour Réseau Canopé. © Réseau Canopé. Tous droits réservés po... more Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour Réseau Canopé. © Réseau Canopé. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit.
Anthropologie et Sociétés, 2006
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2012
Translated by Janet Lloyd Modes of identification broadly schematize our experience of things, ... more Translated by Janet Lloyd Modes of identification broadly schematize our experience of things, distinguishing between parcels of ontological properties distributed in accordance with the arrangements of existing beings, arrangements whose structural characteristics we have examined above, each in turn. It is a distribution of beings according to their attributes, the principles according to which socio-cosmological collectives are organized, the dominant regimes of knowledge and action, and the boundaries of identity and otherness. Each of these forms of identification defines a specific style of relations with the world. Long-established expressions of these relations are to be found in geographical regions, many of which are immense, and over very long periods. Yet we cannot use those styles as criteria for distinguishing between singular collectives with contours limited both in time and in space-the kind that historians, ethnologists and sociologists usually choose to investigate. Rather, we should regard those stylizations of experience as what are usually called-world views,‖-cosmologies‖ or-symbolic forms,‖ all of these being terms of vague epistemological status yet that constitute a handy intuitive way of synthesizing under a simple label (such as-the modern West,‖ or-shamanistic societies‖),-families‖ of practices and mind-sets that seem to display affinities despite the diversity of their concrete manifestations. However, within those great archipelagos marked out by a shared mode of identification one comes across numerous kinds of collectives that consider themselves to be very different from one another (and that are, indeed, perceived as different by those who study them). This is not only on account of their different languages, institutions and, more often than not, the
Horizontes Antropológicos, 2002
O artigo defende a idéia de que a questão da gênese social de técnicas deve ser abordada levando-... more O artigo defende a idéia de que a questão da gênese social de técnicas deve ser abordada levando-se em conta prioritariamente aquilo que se chama, por convenção, de "escolhas técnicas", invertendo o procedimento habitual para estudá-las. Ao invés de explicações tautológicas que visam a esclarecer as vantagens adaptativas que tornariam necessárias a emergência de uma técnica, questiona-se, aqui, as determinações negativas da escolha: por que tal técnica não apareceu em tal contexto particular que a tornaria possível? Toda técnica resumindo-se a uma relação entre o homem e a matéria viva (nela compreendido ele mesmo) ou inorgânica, esta relação deve ser objetivável, ou seja, representável a partir do estoque preexistente de relações consideradas como possíveis no interior do conjunto cultural considerado. Esta proposição é ilustrada por uma explicação da rejeição da domesticação animal pelas populações ameríndias da Amazônia.
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2016
Keynote Lecture for the Symposium "Living structuralism/Le structuralisme vif," held at... more Keynote Lecture for the Symposium "Living structuralism/Le structuralisme vif," held at the University of Toronto, October 1–3, 2015, and a contribution to the HAU (Volume 6.3) Lectures section on "Teleologies of structuralism," edited by Alejandro I. Paz.
Chiasmi International, 2012
Chiasmi International, 2012
Chiasmi International, 2012
Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 2002
2 Si la coïncidence de date exploitée dans mon préambule est toute fortuite, l'évocation... more 2 Si la coïncidence de date exploitée dans mon préambule est toute fortuite, l'évocation d'Alexandre de Humboldt dont elle m'a fourni le prétexte n'est pas dictée par le seul hommage de circonstance à un homme qui contribua à éveiller mon intérêt pour les sociétés et les paysages sud-...
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Papers by Philippe Descola