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Philippe Descola - Wikipedia

  • ️Sun Jun 19 1949

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Philippe Descola

Philippe Descola - June 2011
Born19 June 1949 (age 75)

France

EraContemporary philosophy/Social anthropology/Ethnology/Social science
RegionFrench philosophy
SchoolStructuralism

Main interests

Anthropology, Epistemology, Ethnology, Ontology

Notable ideas

The four ontologies (animism, totemism, analogism, naturalism)

Philippe Descola, FBA (French: [fi.lip de.skɔ.la]; born 19 June 1949) is a French anthropologist noted for studies of the Achuar, one of several Jivaroan peoples, and for his contributions to anthropological theory.

Descola first graduated in philosophy at the École normale supérieure de Lyon and later turned to anthropology, and became a student of Claude Lévi-Strauss (who had followed the same academic path).[1]

His ethnographic studies in the Amazon region of Ecuador began in 1976 and were funded by CNRS. He lived with the Achuar from 1976 to 1978.[2] His reputation largely arises from these studies. As a professor, he has been invited several times to the University of São Paulo, Beijing, Chicago, Montreal, London School of Economics, Cambridge, St. Petersburg, Buenos Aires, Gothenburg, Uppsala and Leuven. He has given lectures in over forty universities and academic institutions abroad, including the Beatrice Blackwood Lecture at Oxford, the George Lurcy Lecture at Chicago, the Munro Lecture at Edinburgh, the Radcliffe-Brown Lecture at the British Academy, the Clifford Geertz Memorial Lecture at Princeton, the Jensen Lecture at Frankfurt and the Victor Goldschmidt Lecture at Heidelberg. He has chaired the Société des Américanistes since 2002 and the scientific committee of the Fondation Fyssen from 2001 to 2009, as well as holding memberships in many other scientific committees.[3] He has also be elected Honorary fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and received in 2015 the honoris causa doctorate from the University of Montreal, Canada.[4] From 2000 to 2019, he was chair of anthropology at the Collège de France.

From his 2005 book Beyond Nature and Culture he has turned towards a more theoretical anthropology, reviving his philosophical studies to propose a new anthropological epistemology, influenced by the sociological work of his friend Bruno Latour. This new and controversial trend has been dubbed the "narrow ontological turn",[5] and has been the subject of a fashion effect between 2014 and 2017, particularly in France.

His wife, Anne-Christine Taylor, is an ethnologist, specialist of Amazonian peoples.

Partial bibliography

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  1. ^ Knight, John; Rival, Laura (1992). "An Interview with Philippe Descola". Anthropology Today. 8 (2): 9–13. doi:10.2307/2783493. JSTOR 2783493. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  2. ^ Descola, Philippe (4 December 1994). "In the Society of Nature: A Native Ecology in Amazonia". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 4 December 2023 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ "Page non trouvée".
  4. ^ "L'Université de Montréal décerne un doctorat honoris causa à Philippe Descola | UdeMNouvelles". Archived from the original on 9 November 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  5. ^ Marshall Sahlins, « https://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.1.013 On the ontological scheme of Beyond nature and culture] », HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory Volume 4, n°1, 2014.
  6. ^ "Centre national de la recherche scientifique". 27 June 2023.
  7. ^ "College de France biographical note".
  8. ^ "Décret du 14 mai 2004 portant promotion et nomination – Légifrance". Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  9. ^ "Prix et distinctions". 2 May 2012.
  10. ^ "Results of 2010 Fellowship Elections – British Academy". Archived from the original on 24 September 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  11. ^ "Actualités & Agenda". Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  12. ^ Legion of Honor website
  13. ^ Philosophical Encounters of Monaco and the Prince Pierre of Monaco Foundation website