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Anthropology and Nature

2013-08-15 Social Science
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Release : 2013-08-15
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 219/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Anthropology and Nature by : Kirsten Hastrup

Download or read book Anthropology and Nature written by Kirsten Hastrup. This book was released on 2013-08-15. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the basis of empirical studies, this book explores nature as an integral part of the social worlds conventionally studied by anthropologists. The book may be read as a form of scholarly "edgework," resisting institutional divisions and conceptual routines in the interest of exploring new modalities of anthropological knowledge making. The present interest in the natural world is partly a response to large-scale natural disasters and global climate change, and to a keen sense that nature matters matters to society at many levels, ranging from the microbiological and genetic framing of reproduction, over co-species development, to macro-ecological changes of weather and climate. Given that the human footprint is now conspicuous across the entire globe, in the oceans as well as in the atmosphere, it is difficult to claim that nature is what is given and permanent, while people and societies are ephemeral and simply derivative features. This implies that society matters to nature, and some natural scientists look towards the social sciences for an understanding of how people think and how societies work. The book thus opens up a space for new forms of reflection on how natures and societies are generated.

Anthropology of Nature

2014-07-08 Social Science
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Release : 2014-07-08
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 822/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Anthropology of Nature by : Philippe Descola

Download or read book Anthropology of Nature written by Philippe Descola. This book was released on 2014-07-08. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It looks as though the anthropology of nature is an oxymoron of sorts, given that for the past few centuries, nature has been characterized in the West by humans’ absence, and humans, by their capacity to overcome what is natural in them. But nature does not exist as a sphere of autonomous realities for all peoples. By positing a universal distribution of humans and non-humans in two separate ontological fields, we are for one quite ill equipped to analyse all those systems of objectification of the world in which a formal distinction between nature and culture does not obtain. This type of distinction moreover appears to go against what the evolutionary and life sciences have taught us about the phyletic continuity of organisms. Our singularity in relation to all other existents is relative, as is our awareness of it.

Beyond Nature and Culture

2013-08-01 Social Science
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Release : 2013-08-01
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 00X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Beyond Nature and Culture by : Philippe Descola

Download or read book Beyond Nature and Culture written by Philippe Descola. This book was released on 2013-08-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Gives to anthropological reflection a new starting point and will become the compulsory reference for all our debates in the years to come.” —Claude Lévi-Strauss, on the French edition 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. Philippe Descola shows this essential difference to be not only a 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 a fundamental reformulation by which anthropologists and philosophers can see the world afresh. “A compelling and original account of where the nature-culture binary has come from, where it might go—and what we might imagine in its place.” —Somatosphere “The most important book coming from French anthropology since Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Anthropologie Structurale.” —Bruno Latour, author of An Inquiry into Modes of Existence “Descola’s challenging new worldview should be of special interest to a wide range of scientific and academic disciplines from anthropology to zoology . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice

People and Nature

2016-07-28 Social Science
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Release : 2016-07-28
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 314/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis People and Nature by : Emilio F. Moran

Download or read book People and Nature written by Emilio F. Moran. This book was released on 2016-07-28. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now updated and expanded, People and Nature is a lively, accessible introduction to environmental anthropology that focuses on the interactions between people, culture, and nature around the world. Written by a respected scholar in environmental anthropology with a multi-disciplinary focus that also draws from geography, ecology, and environmental studies Addresses new issues of importance, including climate change, population change, the rise of the slow food and farm-to-table movements, and consumer-driven shifts in sustainability Explains key theoretical issues in the field, as well as the most important research, at a level appropriate for readers coming to the topic for the first time Discusses the challenges in ensuring a livable future for generations to come and explores solutions for correcting the damage already done to the environment Offers a powerful, hopeful future vision for improved relations between humans and nature that embraces the idea of community needs rather than consumption wants, and the importance of building trust as a foundation for a sustainable future

Environmental Anthropology

2008-06-25 Social Science
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Release : 2008-06-25
Genre : Social Science
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Book Rating : 468/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Environmental Anthropology by : Patricia K. Townsend

Download or read book Environmental Anthropology written by Patricia K. Townsend. This book was released on 2008-06-25. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental anthropologists organize the realities of interdependent lands, plants, animals, and human beings; advocate for the neediest among them; and provide understandings that preserve what is needed for the survival of a diverse world. Can the things that anthropologists have learned in their studies of small-scale systems have any relevance for developing policies to address global problems? Townsend explores this dilemma in her captivating, concise exploration of environmental anthropology and its place among the disciplines subfields. Maintaining the structure and clarity of the previous edition, the second edition has been revised throughout to include new research, expanded discussions of climate change, and a chapter devoted to spiritual ecology. In the historical overview of the field, Townsend shows how ideas and approaches developed earlier are relevant to understanding how todays local populations adapt to their physical and biological environments. She next presents a closer look at global environmental issuesrapid expansion of the world economic system, disease and poverty, the loss of biodiversity and its implications for human healthto demonstrate the effects of interactions between local and global communities. As a capstone, she gives thoughtful consideration to how, as professionals and as individuals, we can move toward personal engagement with environmental problems.

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