The new animism

Emanuele Coccia Emanuele Coccia

doi:10.36253/techne-10999

Abstract

The new animism

Highlights

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 nature[1]
One of the theses of this book is problematic: the one that leads Descola to recognize in Western culture a “naturalist” attitude, that is, objectifying the rest of non-human living beings
The problematic aspect of this thesis is the idea that animism, the attitude that recognizes the existence of a mind or self-consciousness even outside of humanity or a small number of animals, would be impossible or a minority in Western cultures

Summary

Introduction

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 nature[1]. Il dibattito contemporaneo sull’ecologia è largamente influenzato dalle tesi dell’antropologo francese Philippe Descola, che nel suo capolavoro pubblicato nel 2005 “Par-delà nature et culture” descrive come diverse culture si rapportano a quello che l’Occidente chiama natura[1].

Results

Conclusion