A Cultures, Minds, and Medicines Seminar Co-sponsored by the Stanford Humanies Center

Philippe DescolaCollège de FranceThe methodological relavism of anthropology, and the polical consequences it implies, has been carried through only half-way. For the manner in which we think about instu-ons, ours and those of other people, is sll completely dependent upon the concepts that the Enlightenment has bequeathed to the social sciences to qualify reflexively Eu-rope’s own desny: society, nature, history, economics, polics, art, religion, etc. These concepts are anything but universal; they are the products of a very specific ontological mapping which other forms of collecves elsewhere did not share (and which quite a few pepersist in not sharing). Cricism, which has been a hallmark of anthropology from its be-ginnings, thus does not mean reflexivity alone, it requires a complete revision of the con-cepts through which we describe and analyze the shared worlds of humans and non-hu-mans so that these concepts may problemaze ontological pluralism more aptly and thus provide more efficient intellectual tools to bring about new forms of cosmopolics.

Bio: Philippe Descola inially specialized in the ethnology of Amazonia, focussing on how nave sociees relate to their environment. He has published extensively on his field research with the Achuar of Ecuador and on the comparave analysis of the relaons bbetween humans and non-humans, including images. He is Professor of Anthropology at the Collège de France and a Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Scienc-es Sociales, Paris. Among his books in English are In the Society of Nature, The Spears of Twilight, Beyond Nature and Culture, The Ecology of others. He is a fellow of the Brish Academy and a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.