Research Catalog

Title

How forests think : toward an anthropology beyond the human / Eduardo Kohn.

Author

Kohn, Eduardo.

Publication

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2013]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiii, 267 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"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 human--and thus distinct from all other life forms. Based on four years of fieldwork among the Runa of Ecuador's Upper Amazon, Eduardo Kohn draws on his rich ethnography to explore how Amazonians interact with the many creatures that inhabit one of the world'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 direction-one that offers a more capacious way to think about the world we share with other kinds of beings."--Publisher's description.

Subject

• Quechua Indians > Social life and customs
• Quechua mythology
• Ethnoecology > Amazon River Region
• Human-animal relationships > Amazon River Region
• Human-plant relationships > Amazon River Region
• Philosophy of nature > Amazon River Region
• Semiotics > Amazon River Region
• Social sciences > Amazon River Region > Philosophy
• Quechua > Mœurs et coutumes
• Mythologie quechua
• History
• Human-animal relationships
• Human-plant relationships
• Ethnoecology
• Philosophy of nature
• Semiotics
• Social sciences > Philosophy
• Quichua
• Indigenes Volk
• Animismus
• Natur
• Tiere
• Umweltethik
• Anthropologie
• Naturphilosophie
• Quechua (folk)
• Ekologi
• Djur och människor
• Mytologi
• Amazon River Region
• Amazonas-Gebiet
• Ecuador > Amazonområdet

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-258) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction: Runa Puma -- The Open Whole -- The Living Thought -- Soul Blindness -- Trans-Species Pidgins -- Form's Effortless Efficacy -- The Living Future (and the Imponderable Weight of the Dead) -- Epilogue: Beyond.

ISBN

• 9780520276109
• 0520276108
• 9780520276116
• 0520276116
• 9780520956865
• 0520956869

LCCN

• 2013003750
• 40022702520

OCLC

• 827528818
• SCSB-10398023

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library