Il nuovo animismo
Emanuele Coccia
Techne July 6, 2021 DOI: 10.36253/techne-10999 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that while Descola's account of how cultures relate to nature is an important contribution, his thesis that Western culture is characterized by a "naturalist" attitude that objectifies non-human living beings is particularly problematic. |
Abstract
The contemporary debate on ecology is largely influenced by the theses of the French anthropologist Philippe Descola, who in his masterpiece published in 2005 “Par-delà nature et culture” describes how different cultures relate to what the West calls nature1. Nature, in this framework, is itself a cultural element differently accessible according to the way it is thought and described. This is a very important contribution and not only for European anthropology. However, one of the theses of this book is particularly problematic: the one that leads Descola to recognize in Western culture a “naturalist” attitude, that is, objectifying the rest of non-human living beings.