Synopses & Reviews
and#147;A thinking forest is not a metaphor. Rooted in richly composted, other-than-symbolic semiotic worldings, this book teaches the reader how other-than-human encounters open possibilities for the emergent realization of worlds, not just worldviews. The semiotics in this well-wrought book are technical, worked, demanding, tuned to form and modality, alert to emergent properties, multinaturally and ethnographically precise. Thinking with the other-than-human world shows that what humans share with all living beings is the fact that we all live with and through signs. Life is constitutively semiotic. Besides all that, this book is a powerfully good read, one that changed my dreams and reworked my settled habits of interpretation, even the multispecies ones.and#8221; -- Donna Haraway, UC Santa Cruz
and#147;I can only call this thought-leaping in the most creative sense.and#160; A supreme artifact of the human skill in symbolic thinking, this work takes us to the other side of significationand#151;itself doubly manifest in what gets noticed and not noticedand#151;where it is possible to imagine all life as thoughtful life. It has been done hand in hand with the Runa. It could not have been done without the delicacy of Kohnand#8217;s ethnographic attentiveness. However far along the track you want to travel with Kohn, you will see that the anthropological landscape has already changed.and#8221; -- Marilyn Strathern, University of Cambridge
and#147;...A work of art... [and] an immensely refreshing alternative [for] philosophical anthropology.and#8221; and#151; Bruno Latour, Sciences Po
and#147;Radically innovative and original [and] beautifully written.and#8221; and#151; Anna Tsing, UC Santa Cruz
and#147;A remarkable aspect of [this book] is the complex and#150; and often beautifully written and#150; intermingling of subtle theoretical propositions with an even subtler ethnography.and#8221; and#151; Philippe Descola, Colland#232;ge de France
and#147;[Kohn] means to attach us again to the world we thought our thinking removed us from by showing us that the world too thinks. and#133; I know dancers and painters who would groove to Kohn's expansion of self and thought and living, and I want to see the dances, paintings, films, buildings that come out of dreaming over this book.and#8221; and#151; Bookslut
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Review
"Whatand#8217;s so welcome about Kohnand#8217;s approach is that he walks a tightrope with perfect balance: never losing sight of the unique aspects of being human, while refusing to force those aspects into separating us from the rest of the abundantly thinking world."
Synopsis
Can forests think? Do dogs dream? In this astonishing book, Eduardo Kohn challenges the very foundations of anthropology, calling into question our central assumptions about what it means to be humanand#151;and thus distinct from all other life forms. Based on four years of fieldwork among the Runa of Ecuadorand#8217;s Upper Amazon, Eduardo Kohn draws on his rich ethnography to explore how Amazonians interact with the many creatures that inhabit one of the worldand#8217;s most complex ecosystems. Whether or not we recognize it, our anthropological tools hinge on those capacities that make us distinctly human. However, when we turn our ethnographic attention to how we relate to other kinds of beings, these tools (which have the effect of divorcing us from the rest of the world) break down. How Forests Think seizes on this breakdown as an opportunity. Avoiding reductionistic solutions, and without losing sight of how our lives and those of others are caught up in the moral webs we humans spin, this book skillfully fashions new kinds of conceptual tools from the strange and unexpected properties of the living world itself. In this groundbreaking work, Kohn takes anthropology in a new and exciting directionand#150;one that offers a more capacious way to think about the world we share with other kinds of beings.
Synopsis
This volume is the first major collection of Eduardo Viveiros de Castroand#8217;s best yet hitherto scattered essays and lectures, including his momentous 1998 Cambridge University Lectures, and#8220;Cosmological perspectivism in Amazonia and Elsewhere.and#8221; Included are new English translations of essays from the original Portuguese and previously unpublished material. A force to be reckoned with, Eduardo Viveiros de Castroand#8217;s ouevre has gained immense popularity in anthropology over the past two decades, most notably through his elucidation of Amazonian perspectivismand#8212;a major influence on disciplineand#8217;s recent and#8220;ontological turn.and#8221; Here is Viveiros de Castro at his finestand#8212;philosopher and anthropologist, ethnographer and ethnologist, superbly engaging with classic topics such as kinship yet subverting nature/culture ideologies, and taking us into the theoretical depths of magic, cosmology, ontology, and history.
Synopsis
This volume is the first to collect the most influential essays and lectures of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. Published in a wide variety of venues, and often difficult to find, the pieces are brought together here for the first time in a one major volume, which includes his momentous 1998 Cambridge University Lectures, and#147;Cosmological Perspectivism in Amazonia and Elsewhere.and#8221;
Rounded out with new English translations of a number of previously unpublished works, the resulting book is a wide-ranging portrait of one of the towering figures of contemporary thoughtand#151;philosopher, anthropologist, ethnographer, ethnologist, and more. With a new afterword by Roy Wagner elucidating Viveiros de Castroand#8217;s work, influence, and legacy, The Relative Native will be required reading, further cementing Viveiros de Castroand#8217;s position at the center of contemporary anthropological inquiry.
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About the Author
Eduardo Viveiros de Castro is professor of social anthropology at the National Museum, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janerio and the author of many books.
Martin Holbraad teaches social anthropology at University College London. He is coeditor of Thinking Through Things: Theorising Artefacts Ethnographically.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgmentsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Introduction: Runa Puma
1 The Open Whole
2 The Living Thought
3 Soul Blindness
4 Trans-Species Pidgins
5 Formand#8217;s Effortless Efficacy
6 The Living Future (and the Imponderable Weight of the Dead)
Epilogue: Beyondand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Notes
Bibliography
Index