n°28I quarterlyI January 2013 Profile | 19 PhiliPPe Descola's Four ontologies InhisessayBeyond Nature and Culture,1 PhilippeDescoladistinguishesfour primarysystemsthroughwhichpeople perceivetheirrelationshipstothe environment(objects,plants,animals, otherpeople)andmakedistinctions between“humans”and“non-humans.” w in animism,non-humanshave thesameattributesofinteriority (intentionality,subjectivity,reflexivity, affects)ashumans(moralcontinuity),but differintheirphysicalandcorporeal characteristics(physicaldiscontinuity). Thissystemcanbefoundamongthe IndiansofSouthamericaandthearctic regionsofNorthamerica,aswellasthe Pygmiesandcertainpopulationsof Southeastasia. w in totemism,inparticularamong theaustralianaborigines,humansand non-humansaregroupedtogetherin asingletotemicclass:despitetheir differenceinform,theyareconsideredto possessidenticalmoralandphysical qualities(moralandphysicalcontinuity) derivedfromanancestralprototype. w in analogist cultures,allbeingsare seenassingular,dissociatedinevery aspect(moralandphysicaldiscontinuity). Thesearethemodelsoftheclassic ChineseandIndiancultures,theandes, muchofWestafrica,andeuropeuntilthe Renaissance. w in naturalism,bywhichourWestern cultureisstructured,onlymanhasasoul, anintentionality,andthecapacityto expressit,eventhoughheshareshis physicalcharacteristicswithnon-humans (moraldiscontinuitybutphysical continuity). 01. UniversityofChicagoPressbooks, avideoandphoto gallery inpress,June2013. can be viewed on the online version of the magazine: >www.cnrs.fr/cnrsmagazine From tHeAutHor:. e tHeFroNtiers oF mAN LAS. He is also hard at work on a new book theecology ofothers:anthropology QU THè His ethnographic work led him to adopt on images, “which, even before verbaliza- and the Question ofnature o T o a comparatist line of thinking. He began tion, evince the ways of conceiving the rela- (Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press R/CNRS 2012). to reflect on the types of relationships that tions and contrasts between people and the e UTI populations cultivate with their environ- other components of their environment.” spears oftwilight:life and Death in a -G ment, first in the Amazon Basin and then 01.laboratoired’anthropologiesociale(CNRS/Collège New Press, 1998). (New York: Themazon Jungleathe a Y a N . in societies everywhere. cosmoLogY. deFrance/eHeSS). C © animism, totemism, analogism, and of the organization 03.anne-ChristineQuaiBranlymuseuminParis. and Gisli Palsson, editors. (New York:. Philippe Descola andPerspectives1973.ineducationMedalofGoldthedirectoriswonTayloralsotheateroy-Gouranlresearchof the worldA representationnthropologicalaociety:sature andnndréaprehistorianandethnologist02.Descola identifies four ontologies— naturalism (see box)—four ways of de- characteristic of a 04.ecoledeshautesétudesensciencessociales. Routledge 1996). tecting the limits between self and non- given culture and in thesociety ofnature:a native thecosmologies that arise from them. ontology (animism, contact InFormatIon: Cambridge University Press, 1994).(Cambridge:mazoniaacology ine, Paris.lastotemism,Philippe Descolabased on a specificToday, the anthropologist continues hisdescola@ehess.fr>analogism, or self in human societies and discusses research in parallel with his work at the naturalism).
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