Evolution and Social Life
... Finally, these conversations also identify some of the other factors that have played a part in changing Ingold's ideas over time. In Conversation 1, he explains that after publishing Evolution and Social Life (Ingold 1986a) and The Appropriation of Nature (1986b), he concluded that his attempts in these books to combine social anthropology, respectively, with evolutionary biology and ecology had 'ended in failure'. What helped him find an alternative path forward was a suggestion from the ecological psychologist Edward Reed that he read the work of James Gibson. ...
... In this he was influenced by works in neo-Marxist anthropology, including Godelier's Rationality and Irrationality in Economics (1972) and Terray's Marxism and 'Primitive' Societies (1972), as well by Gibson's The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (1979). His book Evolution and Social Life (Ingold 1986a), written in the shadow of Wilson's Sociobiology (1975), was strongly influenced by the philosophical works of Bergson (Creative Evolution, 1911) and Whitehead (Process and Reality, 1929 For reasons of space, Ingold's work on hunter-gatherers, which he mentions towards the end of this interview, is not explored in depth here. Interested readers are referred in particular to Hunters, Pastoralists and Ranchers (Ingold 1980) and Hunters and Gatherers, Vols I: History, Evolution and Social Change, and II: Property, Power and Ideology (Ingold, Riches and Woodburn 1988). ...
Conversations with Tim Ingold offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the work of Tim Ingold, one of the leading anthropologists of our time. Presented as a series of interviews conducted by three anthropologists from the University of Glasgow over a period of two years, the book explores Ingold's key contributions to anthropology and other disciplines. In his responses, Ingold describes the significant influences shaping his life and career, and addresses some of the criticisms that have been made of his ideas.
Following an introductory chapter, the book consists of five edited and annotated interviews, each focusing on a specific theme: 'Life and Career,' 'Anthropology, Ethnography, Education and the University,' 'Environment, Perception and Skill,' 'Animals, Lines and Imagination,' and 'Looking Back and Forward.' Each chapter ends with a 'Further Reading' section, referencing Ingold's work and that of other scholars, to assist readers who want to follow up particular issues and debates. It concludes with an ‘Afterword’ authored by Ingold himself.
... Este período de afirmação das soberanias reais teve expressão em fatores internos que propiciaram as separações entre os poderes, nomeadamente, a existência de um exército regular, a manutenção de um sistema fiscal permanente aliado a uma moeda emitida pelo Rei, a aplicação e desenvolvimento da legislação monárquica e a paulatina formação de um sentimento nacional, especialmente em França e Inglaterra (Nay 2004) (Barnard 2022). Esta perspetiva era fruto do contexto histórico que assentava amarras na ideia de Progresso, perspetiva que era anterior à teoria da evolução proposta por Darwin (Ingold 1986). Para a epistemologia da antropologia deste período, esta posição conduziu a uma assunção explícita da superioridade do observador (Gardner 1988) assente numa visão não-relativista extremada. ...
This work is divided into three sections. The first outlines classical anarchist thought and its
proposal to dissolve the state, questioning its legitimacy. Anarchism is primarily a moral philosophy
with Aristotelian elements and a concept of individual autonomy rooted in Enlightenment ideals. The
second section, drawing on archaeologist Patrick Kirch's analysis of early Hawaiian society, discusses
cultural evolution in Hawaii and Polynesia, leading to shifts in ethical structures. Key concepts like
mana and kapu signified a transition from a chiefdom society to one founded on sacred sovereignty,
merging religious and political realms. In the final section, the emergence of the modern nation-state
is examined, emphasizing the split between religious and political spheres in European society. This
separation contributed to a rationalized concept of state legitimacy inherited from Greek and Roman
traditions. Hawaiian and European social structures are compared to critique the anarchist proposal
for state dissolution, concluding that the archaic Hawaiian state was not a random development.
Instead, classical anarchism’s notion of the state as a contingent outcome of societal evolution made
the idea of state dissolution conceivable. The Enlightenment’s autonomous individual, modernity’s
historical context, and secular conditions fostered the transformative possibilities envisioned by
classical anarchist thought.
Keywords: Anarchism, Sacred Sovereignty, Archaic State, Nation-State, Hawaii, Legitimacy.
Available at IUL-ISCTE, Lisbon, Portugal, repository: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/34188
... Some colloids such as foams and gels are relatively frozen into an enduring, 'solid' spatial arrangement of parts; others (typically solid particles in a fluid medium) are dynamic colloids, more 'fluid' in that they have a more-or-less instant response to applied intensive forces. In reference to a definition of the social originally published by Tim Ingold in 1986(Ingold, 2016, I suggested that in especially dynamic colloids, at least sometimes the behaviours of individual iterations within the colloid are not simply individually determined (bottom-up), but neither is there a pre-existing order that 'regulates' the actions (top-down) of the individual iterations; instead, order emerges from a meshwork of causal interactions amongst discrete and continuous matter, solids and fluids, and spatial scales. I concluded that such colloids can be described as 'social' in Ingold's sense -and conversely that the social is itself colloidal; that both what we call colloids and what we call societies share the feature that their dynamic evolution is shaped by how multiple (and thus countable) entities interact with each other and with the continuous (and uncountable) medium in which they immersed. ...
In this paper I try to identify a minimal definition of culture that might be applicable in the much-more-than-human realm that extends beyond organic matter and human involvement. I speculate that culture conceived in this broad way might be a metapattern or ‘machinic solution’ available to matter of diverse kinds, organic and inorganic. I explore how this idea might apply this to colloids – hybrid forms of matter such as sols, foams and gels that are mixtures of matter in different phase states, some continuous and some discontinuous, and which can behave in complex ways that mix features of solid and fluid behaviour. I conclude by suggesting that attending to both the similarities and differences between ‘culture’ in the organic and in the inorganic realms might force us to rethink our understanding of both.
... Therefore, it is possible to conclude that, being the structure of connections between the words, the language exists in the mind. In his insightful write-ups, Ingold (2016) basically captures this as what Saussure has to say on linguistic theory. As a result, Fiona's condition is problematic not so much because it allows her to freely combine words and objects, signifiers and signified, but rather because it is a mental disease that defies standards that have been socially and historically accepted in terms of language and cognition. ...
... Essa é a criatividade da vida social. Pois a vida social não é algo que a pessoa faz, mas o que a pessoa vivencia: um processo em que os humanos não criam sociedades, mas, vivendo socialmente, criam a si mesmos e uns aos outros (Ingold, 1986;Hallam, 2007, p. 8). ...
A criatividade é geralmente retratada como um fator X responsável pela geração espontânea do absolutamente novo. No entanto, a obsessão pela novidade implica uma atenção aos produtos finais e uma atribuição retrospectiva das suas formas a ideias sem precedentes na mente dos indivíduos, ignorando os potenciais geradores de forma das relações e processos em que as pessoas e coisas surgem e se desenvolvem. Nesses processos, espera-se tipicamente que o aprendiz copie as obras dos grandes mestres do passado. No entanto, mesmo seguindo um roteiro ou uma partitura, cada praticante tem de improvisar o seu próprio caminho através do conjunto de tarefas que a performance implica. Com exemplos da música, da caligrafia e da confecção de rendas, mostro que a fontes da criatividade não está na cabeça das pessoas, mas em seu envolvimento em um mundo em formação. Nesse tipo de criatividade, mais vivenciada que realizada, a imaginação não é tanto a capacidade de apresentar novas ideias, mas o impulso aspiracional de uma vida que não apenas se vive, mas se conduz. Para onde ela é conduzida, no entanto, não é dado de antemão. Abrindo-se ao desconhecido – se expondo – a imaginação conduz não pela maestria, mas pela submissão. Assim, a criatividade do vivenciar, da ação sem agência, é a criatividade da própria vida. Tradução: Beto Vianna Submissão: 15 mai. 2024 ⊶ Aceite: 3 jun. 2024
... In the Tuscan valleys, productive resources are given as a shared inheritance, a perspective that engages in a form of respect towards the opportunity, the possibility that it historically offers: from nature, man generates things and knowledge "in the progressive unfolding of those relations that are established in the sensorial and active involvement" of the craftsman with the resources at his disposal (Ingold 2016). From the qualitative analysis made through the three case studies taken into consideration, a shared vision emerges on the rapid transition of the Tuscan textile and leather districts towards behaviours and good practices aiming at a lower environmental impact. ...
The Tuscan territory has been a place of production linked to the theme of recycling-reuse since the Middle Ages: just think of the Prato textile district, which has made regenerated wool its fortune and trademark. This contribution aims to analyse and narrate the current scenario of the Tuscan textile and leather goods industry and its vocation in setting up sustainable production and design models. It aims to introduce the theme of stability—not sustainability—which is the most anthropocentric thing that can exist (Caffo, Velocità di fuga, Einaudi, 2022). The stability of a system that has been going on for centuries and that has made regeneration and recycling its strong point long before these practices became, as we now observe, urgent and indispensable in order to stem climate change. It is this propensity for a “slower pace” and for stabilisation referable to a particular territorial component that leads us to analyse and compare three case studies: the project of ZeroLab, a leather recovery and recycling hub and incubator for emerging designers located in Scandicci; Rifò, brand based in the city of Prato that creates Made in Italy garments from textile waste; Pangaia Grado Zero Group, a venture located in Montelupo Fiorentino, which offers high-tech solutions and materials. This mosaic of experiences testifies to the existence and strength of the innovation engine of a territory, that of Tuscany, where the man-nature relationship has triggered a virtuous mechanism of realities that also interact with the productions of the large international luxury groups present in the area.
... As premissas nas quais este trabalho assenta são claras. Entende-se que a arte rupestre pode ter funcionando como um veículo de comunicação entre comunidades, sendo um fator dinamizador das sociedades do passado (Ingold, 1987;Bradley, 1997), com correspondências aos mitos e às crenças dessas comunidades (Tilley, 1994). Ou seja, atuar sobre a rocha e criar imagens é algo que está imbuído de grande simbolismo e significado, demonstrando uma forte inter-relação das comunidades com o meio envolvente. ...
O Noroeste português tem-se revelado um terreno fértil no que diz respeito à descoberta de afloramentos gravados de vários períodos cronológicos. Assim sendo, os afloramentos localizados na união de freguesias de Anhões e Luzio, Monção em Viana do Castelo, são mais um exemplo da arte rupestre desta região, sendo que, todos possuem como elemento em comum, a gravação do círculo segmentado, raro no Noroeste. Por consequência, foi realizado o estudo destes afloramentos com o objetivo de os dar a conhecer e de interpretar a funcionalidade e simbologia destes motivos, tendo por base pressupostos da Arqueologia Interpretativa, da Antropologia, bem como uma abordagem que tem em conta o contexto celeste. Com efeito, é plausível colocar a hipótese de que os círculos segmentados correspondem à representação do símbolo solar e que, nos sítios gravados, parecem evidenciar várias fases do calendário solar. Por outro lado, estes lugares seriam carregados de um forte simbolismo, podendo ser lugares de culto e/ou observatórios astronómicos, devido ao seu caráter exclusivo e afastados de outros contextos arqueológicos de cronologia genérica.
... Based on this multi-fold trajectory, I will arrive at the question of the object in-itself and contrast it with the representation of objects to highlight the limits of anthropological approaches to in-between and liminality. I stress that many anthropologists have always found in-betweenness and liminality from a location saturated in representa-tions, correlations, and relations (see Turner 1987;Ingold 1986;Zerubavel 2003;Scott 2009;Stroller 2007) and therefore, objects of anthropologists (things such as books, guns, statues, totems, cars, etc. and concepts such as cultures, languages, memory, society, God, etc.) are subdued to the human access. Third, I elaborate further on the in-betweenness of objects without subduing it to the social construction/becoming of things, mediation, and humans. ...
... Based on this multi-fold trajectory, I will arrive at the question of the object in-itself and contrast it with the representation of objects to highlight the limits of anthropological approaches to in-between and liminality. I stress that many anthropologists have always found in-betweenness and liminality from a location saturated in representa-tions, correlations, and relations (see Turner 1987;Ingold 1986;Zerubavel 2003;Scott 2009;Stroller 2007) and therefore, objects of anthropologists (things such as books, guns, statues, totems, cars, etc. and concepts such as cultures, languages, memory, society, God, etc.) are subdued to the human access. Third, I elaborate further on the in-betweenness of objects without subduing it to the social construction/becoming of things, mediation, and humans. ...
... Delo angleškega antropologa Tima Ingolda je v zadnjih nekaj letih postalo vplivno ne le v antropologiji, temveč tudi v sorodnih disciplinah. Za to sta verjetno dva vzroka: po eni strani v precej obsežnem delu obravnava izjemno raznolike, praviloma modne tematike, kot so razmerje med evolucijo in družbenim življenjem (1986;Ingold in Pàlsson 2013); odnosi med živalmi in ljudmi (1994;2007a);okolje, krajina, gibanje, percepcija, tehnologija, material(nost)i (2000;2007b;2011a;2011b;Ingold in Lee Vergunst 2008;Janowski in Ingold 2012); vzgajanje, ustvarjanje oziroma izdelovanje itd. Hallam in Ingold 2007;, spotoma pa je uredil tudi nekaj pomembnih zbornikov in priročnikov (2005; 2007c). 2 Po drugi strani njegov pristop 1 Podobno kot je v uvodu v Anti-Dühring zapisal Friedrich Engels (1979), pri katerem si sposojam naslov prispevka, moram tudi sam poudariti, da delo ni nastalo (zgolj) zaradi »notranje sle«, temveč po pogovorih s prijatelji. ...
This chapter reviews the theoretical foundations of critical juncture research and, based on a consideration of how foundational issues should be addressed, suggests that some changes to the core ideas used in this research are needed. The aim of the chapter is to show how the critical juncture framework can be reconstructed on stronger foundations.
Cet article est la traduction du texte Of seals and souls: Changes in the position of seals in the world-view of Icelandic small-scale fishermen publié en 1990 dans le volume 3, numéro 2 de la revue Maritime Anthropological Studies. Il a été traduit par Karina Gerdau. Cet article traite des changements d’attitude des artisans pêcheurs islandais envers les phoques. Le matériel sur lequel cette étude se fonde provient d'un travail de terrain dans un village de pêcheurs de la côte est de l’Islande, mais aussi de l'expérience de l'auteur en tant que participant natif à la pêche artisanale. L’argument souvent avancé est que pour comprendre un changement culturel particulier, il convient de voir de quelle façon il est « externally induced yet indigenously orchestrated » (Sahlins, 1985. p. viii). Dans le cas présent, l'influence extérieure provient des campagnes contre l'abattage des mammifères marins menées par des organisations de protection de l'environnement et des animaux.
In this paper, I analyze and compare Maria Kronfeldner?s and Tim Ingold?s views on the conceptual relationship between nature and culture. I show that despite the differences, their views remain close, particularly in terms of their integrative potential. The ultimate purpose of this examination is to lay the groundwork for further research on the problem of conceptual integration between sociocultural anthropology and evolutionary psychology. The paper comprises four main sections. First, I briefly explore the history of Darwinism to show how nature and culture were conceptualized within this framework. Second, I deal with Kronfeldner?s separationist stance and Ingold?s holistic perspective on the nature/ culture conceptual relationship. Third, I discuss the implications of their views on the choice of research heuristics in the sciences that study human nature and cultures. While I interpret Ingold as supporting methodological integration, Kronfelder argues for a version of integrative pluralism. Lastly, I provide an outlook for further discussions on conceptual integration and integrative pluralism.
Generally, the ‘individual’ in the biological disciplines in Britain and France was perceived as an entity in terms of which all else had to be described, analyzed, and explained. This was further enhanced in the transfer from these disciplines to emerging sociology and psychology. Yet I show how from Spencer on, the Spencerian Lamarckism/neo-Lamarckism perspective on adaptation, evolution, and heredity, provided modes of linking individuals and sociality, of collectivizing.
Generalização aceitável e história inaceitável O objetivo da Antropologia é, creio eu, o de buscar um entendimento generoso, comparativo, não obstante crítico, do ser humano e do conhecimento em um mesmo mundo no qual todos nós habitamos. O objetivo da etnografia é o de descrever as vidas das pessoas que não nós mesmos, com uma precisão e uma afiada sensibilidade através da observação detalhada e da experiência de primeira mão. Minha tese é a de que a antropologia e a etnografia são empreitadas de ordens bem diferentes. Isso não é reivindicar que uma é mais importante que a outra, ou mais honrosa. Nem é negar que elas dependem uma da outra de maneiras significativas. É simplesmente afirmar que elas não são a mesma coisa. De fato, isso pode parecer uma afirmação óbvia e, assim sendo, não está longe o fato de se tornar lugar comum-ao menos no último quarto de século-para escritores de nossa área tratar as duas como virtualmente equivalentes, trocar antropologia por etnografia mais ou menos como um capricho conforme o humor os leva ou mesmo explorar o suposto sinônimo como um dispositivo estilístico para evitar a repetição verbal. Muitos colegas, a quem eu tenho informalmente colocado a questão, têm me falado que nos seus pontos de vista há uma pequena, se há, distinção entre o trabalho antropológico e o etnográfico. Muitos estão convencidos que a etnografia reside no núcleo do que é a antropologia. Para eles, sugerir o contrário parece quase anacrônico. É como se voltássemos aos malfeitos velhos tempos-os tempos, alguns poderão dizer, de Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown. Pois, foi ele quem, sedimentando as fundações do que-nas primeiras décadas do século XX-foi a nova ciência da antropologia social, insistiu na absoluta distinção entre etnografia e antropologia. Ele fez isso em termos de um contraste, muito debatido na época, porém pouco ouvido nos dias de hoje, entre investigação idiográfica e nomotética. Uma investigação idiográfica, 1 Tradução e revisão para a língua portuguesa brasileira feita por Caio Fernando Flores Coelho e Rodrigo Ciconet Dornelles, de acordo com texto original publicado em: INGOLD, Tim. Epilogue: "Anthropology is not Ethnography." In: ______. Being Alive. Routledge: London and New York, 2011. pp. 229-243. Algumas notas de rodapé deste texto, originais ao livro, fazem referência a capítulos deste.
In this article, I consider two Korczakian conceptions complementary to each other of children’s labour as a means of building their agency and autonomy. The first is the concept of labour as development. While the second is development as labour. I analyse testimonies from Korczak’s institutions, including notes gleaned from children’s accounts Wspomnienia z maleńkości dzieci Naszego Domu w Pruszkowie [Recollections from the Children of Our Home in Pruszków], children’s texts (Mały Przegląd [Little Review]) and programme and literary texts by Janusz Korczak/Henryk Goldszmit and Maria (Maryna) Falska, who collaborated with him. In the anthropological perspective of new childhood studies I ponder the radicalism of Korczak’s projects involving child labour in light of the time, their perspective on child labour, and childhood itself. In what sense did they have modern origins? And in what sense did they transcend modernity – along with its concepts of childhood and child development?
The topic of metabolic/endocrine disorders encompasses a cornucopia of congenital and acquired phenomena affecting bone growth, density and shape. Endocrine organ over and underproduction, insufficient and excessive vitamin and mineral ingestion great impact bone structures, metabolism and function. In born errors of metabolism greatly impact bone structures, metabolism and function. They result in defects in enzyme function resulting in infiltration of bones and other tissues by stymied metabolic processes and production of abnormal proteins and lipid structures. Congenital disease includes ontological and homeobox phenomena, the latter related to altering the genes that control the sequence involved in development. Coalitions and fusions may be osseous or fibrous in character. Abnormal renal (kidney), hepatic (liver) and pancreatic function results in production of toxins or interference with metabolic functions that impact bone. Environmental exposures are additional considerations. Finally, osteological phenomena that suggest past parturition are discussed.
The ontological turn (OT) is a loose cluster of theoretical approaches within cultural anthropology that advocates a synthetic, overarching way forward for ethnographically oriented cultural anthropology. We argue that in order to contribute substantively to ethnobiology the OT needs to distance itself from a long-standing tradition of thinking within ethnography that assumes some kind of fundamental divide between the natural and the social sciences. This distancing seems especially unlikely in light of the meta-anthropological nature of the OT as primarily a perspective on ethnographic methodology. Instead, we advocate for naturalistic theoretical alternatives for thinking about human sociality, where philosophical innovation develops in concert with ongoing empirical work across the biological, cognitive, and social sciences. We illustrate this perspective by drawing on two naturalistic accounts likely to prove more fruitful for ethnobiological practice, namely, trans-genera models of sociality and progenerative views of kinship.
Tim Ingold draws a sharp line between animism and hylomorphism, that is, between his relational ontology and a rival genealogical ontology. He argues that genealogical hylomorphism collapses under a fallacy of circularity, while his relationism does not. Yet Ingold fails to distinguish between vicious or fallacious circles, on the one hand, and virtuous or hermeneutic circles, on the other. I demonstrate that hylomorphism and Ingold's relational animism are both virtuously circular. Hence, there is no difference between them on this count. A path thus opens for what I call hylomorphic animism. While Ingold's relational animism leads into obscurity, hylomorphic animism is able to explain the differences in power between material things.
This paper critically engages with the book Anthropology and Modern Life by Franz Boas, which was originally published in 1928. The paper discusses a number of themes addressed in the book and assesses their relevance to current challenges for anthropological research and public engagement. An important element of Boas’ book is his critique of racist thinking as a basis to understand human actions and other aspects of human variability. Even though Boas’ treatment of racism is not entirely unproblematic itself, his critical contributions remain deeply relevant today in light of a resurgence of related ideas in current public discourses and anthropological research contexts. Even though Boas’ views of education appear to be quite eclectic, they can still serve to support a holistic and reflexive approach towards learning, which are aspects that also come under increasing pressure in higher education contexts in many countries right now. Finally, some consequences of Boas’ arguments for current aspects of archaeological issues are discussed, even though archaeology did not feature in Anthropology and Modern Life in any substantial form. However, the core themes of Boas’ book remain applicable to archaeological research and the impact of archaeological knowledge on public discourses. From this arises a particular responsibility with respect to the historical narratives that archaeology produces and their relationship to contemporary issues and challenges.
In this essay both the facts/values and facticity/normativity divides are considered from the perspective of global semiotics and with specific regard to the relationships between legal meaning and spatial scope of law’s experience. Through an examination of the inner and genetic projective significance of categorization, I will analyze the semantic dynamics of the descriptive parts comprising legal sentences in order to show the intermingling of factual and axiological/teleological categorizations in the unfolding of legal experience. Subsequently, I will emphasize the translational and enactive cognitive disposition underlying the construction of the second premise of the so-called judiciary syllogism and thereby the untenability of the idea that ‘law makes its facts.’ Hence, I will try to bring to the fore the cultural pre-assumptions encapsulated in the positivistic and therefore also formalistic or analytical approaches to legal experience and the loss of their inner consistency when legal experience confronts the phases and major changes of global semiotics. Finally, I will strive to relativize the opposition between the positivist and non-positivistic theories of law in view of an understanding of legal experience focused not only, or at least not primarily, on what ‘law is’ but also on ‘how’ it unwinds through, and in spite of, environmental and semantic transformations.
Anthropologist Tim Ingold promotes Indigenous animism as a salve for perceived failures in modern science, failures he claims also hobbled his own early work. In fact, both Ingold’s early and later work rely on modern scientific ideas and images. His turn to animism marks not an exit from the history of European science, but an entrance into, and imaginative elaboration of, distinctly Neoplatonic themes within that history. This turn marks, too, a clear but unacknowledged departure from systematic social analysis. By re-embracing social analysis, Ingold would overcome the obscurity that now hobbles his later work.
This paper argues that an exploration of colloids can help us situate human social life within a wider understanding of the sociality and animacy of matter. Colloids are substances such as sols, foams, powders, gels, doughs and pastes that exhibit complex and shifting macroscale physical properties that do not conform to standard conceptions of solids, liquids or gases. Colloids can behave in complex and creative ways because of their topological enfolding of dispersed and continuous matter, in different phases, at a ‘mesoscale’ intermediate between the scale of molecules and that of the macroscale substance. I relate colloids, with their twin phenomena of ‘repetition’ and ‘mediation’, to an understanding of social life as reducible neither to the interaction between separate individuals nor to a transindividual whole. I suggest that human social life participates in a colloidal ‘metapattern’ of repetition and mediation that is manifest across diverse material substrates and spatial scales.
This issue opens an inquiry into the tension between solidity and fluidity. This tension is ingrained in the Western intellectual tradition and informs theoretical debates across the sciences and humanities. In physics, solid is one phase of matter, alongside liquid, gas and plasma. This, however, assumes all matter to be particulate. Reversing the relation between statics and dynamics, we argue to the contrary, that matter exists as continuous flux. It is both solid and fluid. What difference would it make were we to start from our inescapable participation in a world of solid fluids? Is solid fluidity a condition of being in the midst of things, or of intermediacy on a solid-fluid continuum? Does the world appear fluid in the process of its formation, but solid when you look back on things already formed? Here we open new paths for theorizing matter and meaning at a time of ecological crisis.
This chapter provides an overview of memetics, starting with relevant terminology and examples of applications of memetics in other disciplines in Sect. 2.1. Section 2.2 highlights important contributions as well as cornerstones of the so-called “meme’s eye view”. Section 2.3 turns to some of the controversies in meme theory before Sects. 2.4–2.6 give an overview of the central notions of replicators, interactors, and memeplexes.
This chapter addresses some important issues that have not received sufficient attention in the previous chapters. It should be noted, however, that each topic would justify a full paper or perhaps even a book in its own right. Therefore, this general discussion strives for conciseness rather than completeness. Section 7.1 sets off with arguably one of the most widely debated issues in social science, namely the question of agency versus structure—yet, in this case, with a particular focus on the agency of memes. Section 7.2 addresses the implications of a memetic perspective on creativity and novelty. In Sect. 7.3, we turn to some of the normative implications of the (econo-)memetic approach.
Abstract:
Modern legal systems' efficacy and self-consistency rely upon semantic/cultural conditions that they do not engender and are unable to maintain without resorting to the cognitive provisions gushing out from freedom-this is the preliminary assumption of this essay. Some factors play a generative role in this direction. The cornerstone of legal modernity is the 'exteriority' of law. This means that legal qualifications have to draw from the morphological appearances of human behaviors and relate to only their empir-ical/factual signification and consequences. The domain of intentions, the internal forum, is out of law's cognitive reach. The whole grammar of modern liberties is somehow imbued with the idea that freedom can exist only insofar as a 'zone' of behavioral autonomy is granted by means of objectively determined rights and duties. The formal features of these rights and their pragmatic implications cannot therefore be opined just because their exterior significance allegedly assures a shelter for individual freedom. In a sense, freedom is considered as an epiphenomenon of the protection afforded by the past reifica-tion of rights. The ensuing silent assumption is that should freedom redefine the content and the objective behavioral implementations of those rights, it would annihilate itself. What this approach overwrites, however, is that the morphological appearances of gestures and things stem from cultural and inter-subjective-discursive activities-a kind of semantic social contract-that can never be considered accomplished once and for all. This is because the very molding of the shapes and features of morphological appearances implies that freedom, viz. a non-indifferent differing is at work. But freedom, in turn, is a 'phenomenon' the origin of which dwells in the individuals' internal forum, their own experiences, including their mnestic environment and the semiotic crossroads that constitute their minds. Nevertheless, legal terminological apparatuses-as shown above-are treated/used as systems of signs that encapsulate a semantic discontinuity in their legitimacy, a setback in the definition not only of what it is to be, but also the factual dimension to which legal categorizations implicitly refer. This discontinuity is often passed off as an objectivity normatively granted and absorbed by legal language that includes not only the meanings of what 'ought to be' but-silently-even of what 'is.' The exteriority of modern law and the objectivity of the related morphological assumption make up, therefore, the lexicon of 'an' equality somehow immunized against freedom and its semantic-political differentiating significance. The equality of differences before the law, but not inside the law, is the Kafkian liberticidal and mystifying outcome of the above Cartesian-fashioned misuse of law's mythologized exteriority/objectivity and the epistemological sleight of hand for which such a binomial paves the way. The paper will analyze the extent to which the self-evidence bestowed upon morphological features encapsulated in official legal discourse epitomizes semiotic ideological assumptions and eases their instrumental/ discriminatory use. Moreover, the normative and partisan misuses of the 'cognitive' will be explored to bring to the surface its function in the obscuring of the semio-ecological surroundings of human conduct and the resulting impairment of the relevance of 'Otherness' and 'Elsewhere' (including chronological remoteness) in the semantic construction of legal cases. Ultimately, the paper will examine how law's exteriority-namely, an objective exteriority of facts and the related meanings under its lens-is often transformed into a (pseudo) cognitive instrument of power employed to deny freedom its constitutional-democratic role as an unremitting source of law.
Niklas Luhmann developed an elaborate theory of social and cognitive systems, which combines Maturana and Varela’s notion of cognition with Husserlian phenomenology (Arnoldi 2006, p. 117). That is, Luhmann developed the idea of autopoiesis of social systems and recognized that this use of autopoiesis could be problematic (Luhmann 1986, p. 172). As humans are central elements of social systems, it follows that, to be considered as an autopoietic system, a social system must be self-reproducing in terms of humans (Bednarz 1988, p. 61). How could this be possible? Luhmann proposed a very intelligent solution to this paradox. He redefined social systems as being realized in a domain of communication. In other words, the constituent elements of a social system are communications. Therefore, the social system is understood as a network of communication that emerges over time (Nassehi 2005, p. 181). Subsequently, the conditions for autopoiesis have to be evaluated in terms of the self-production of communication (Teubner 1991, p. 235). In fact, Luhmann understands communication not as a diffusion of meaning or information from one person to another but as an autopoietic system that appears out of the doubly dependent meeting of subjects (Arnoldi 2006, p. 116). As a corollary, we can consider that Luhmann’s theory is an autopoietic theory of communication (Mingers 2010, p. 158).
The post-war introduction of new chemicals to consumer products created a range of complex environmental health issues. Despite recent evidence demonstrating the issues associated with using particular chemicals in the home, responses from industry and regulators have failed to account for the complex ways that chemicals interact with each other, humans and microorganisms to cause harm. This paper draws together the scientific and social science literature to make two key contributions: first, it demonstrates why investigating everyday practices will be crucial to improve knowledge of how human/environment interactions in the home are contributing to certain health conditions; second, it draws on examples of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals to show how these health conditions cannot be addressed by replacing individual products, or chemicals, as many toxic ingredients have become central to the functionality of interdependent networks of products, and the routines they enable. By failing to engage with these issues, future research and planning to establish healthy homes will not be able to account for these crucial sources of harm. We conclude that further research addressing indoor environmental health should expand the boundaries of inquiry across disciplines and knowledge perspectives to analyse how social practices structure micro-scale interactions between humans, microbes and chemicals, in the home.
The article explores the genealogy of Edenic narratives about the Pontine Marshes in Agro Pontino, Italy, and the imaginary of the Bonifica Integrale (integral reclamation). This process of reclamation, implemented by the fascist regime throughout the 1930s, drained the Marshes transforming their ecological, economic, and social structure. The dominant reading of Agro Pontino's history is polarised through a dualistic view that sees the Marshes as the realm of an almost pristine nature and the Bonifica Integrale as a life-giving event that transformed that environment, making it cultivable and inhabitable. This view reflects a modernist understanding of time as a series of punctuated events in a linear trajectory that leads to environmental degradation. In conservation, this interpretation produces problematic political effects resulting in a specific approach that positions agriculture and nature on opposite sides. The article presents ethnographic materials that challenge this view and suggests a different approach, an 'Anthropocene conservation', which looks at the sustainability of the future rather than defining an ecological baseline to restore.
This two-part article presents the research program for a theory and empirical analysis of religious evolution. It is assumed that religion is primarily a co-evolution to societal evolution, which in turn is a co-evolution to mental, organic, and physical evolution. The theory of evolution is triangulated with the systems theory and the semiotically informed theory of communication, so that knowledge can be gained that would not be acquired by only one of the three theories: The differentiation between religion and its environment can be reconstructed based on the theory of evolution. The elements of the theory of evolution can be understood as the formation of systems. The semiotically informed theory of communication clarifies the conditions of the combination of both the systems theory and the theory of evolution as well as its objects. In turn, the combination of the systems theory and the theory of evolution can describe how communication—including religion and science—evolves and is structured.
La conservation autorise la consommation différée des aliments et permet aux populations humaines de s’affranchir des aléas du climat et de la disponibilité des ressources. Les populations ne pratiquant pas l’agriculture sont fortement dépendantes de leur milieu et le stockage des ressources alimentaires peut donc s’avérer indispensable à la survie du groupe. Ce constat est particulièrement vrai dans des environnements contrastés où les ressources de base sont présentes en abondance sur des laps de temps très courts comme c’est aujourd’hui le cas dans les zones proches du cercle polaire ; la littérature ethnographique illustre bien l’importance du stockage dans ces contextes. Durant la Préhistoire, l’Europe a connu des climats proches de ceux actuellement enregistrés dans les zones subarctiques. Notre enquête a porté sur le temps long, de -80 000 à -14 000 avant le présent, période marquée par une succession de contextes environnementaux variés et qui a également vu l’apparition de l’homme anatomiquement moderne et la disparition de l’homme de Néandertal. Une revue bibliographique des techniques de stockage traditionnelles utilisées par des sociétés de chasseurs-cueilleurs nomades a permis de déterminer celles potentiellement utilisées au Paléolithique. Sur la base des restes osseux de gibier, cet article dresse un bilan des indices pouvant attester du stockage alimentaire chez les populations nomades du Paléolithique, et interroge l’impact socioéconomique de ce type de pratique sur ces populations de chasseurs-cueilleurs.
The Aboriginal cultural traditions of Australia, their histories, philosophies and characteristics, have fascinated and intrigued European observers and scholars for a very long time. This paper explores some implications of recent ethnographic information and engagements related to the themes of Indigenous rock art, knowledge and the understanding of Country in the Kimberley region, Western Australia, for the interpretation of archaeological evidence. It is argued that the Aboriginal understanding of cultural features and practices, rock art and the natural environment is best described within a framework of relational ontology. This orientation has important consequences for the conceptualization of a range of interrelated key themes, most importantly ‘space and place’, ‘story and narrative’ and ‘knowledge and representation’. Thus, the paper calls for the development of opportunities of intellectual engagement and exchange as well as collaborative and creative responses, which should also include new forms of expression in academic contexts that themselves reflexively engage with the limitations of writing and representation.
This two-part article presents the research program for a theory and empirical analysis of religious evolution. It is assumed that religion is primarily a co-evolution to societal evolution, which in turn is a co-evolution to mental, organic, and physical evolution. The theory of evolution is triangulated with the systems theory and the semiotically informed theory of communication, so that knowledge can be gained that would not be acquired by only one of the three theories: The differentiation between religion and its environment can be reconstructed based on the theory of evolution. The elements of the theory of evolution can be understood as the formation of systems. The semiotically informed theory of communication clarifies the conditions of the combination of both the systems theory and the theory of evolution as well as its objects. In turn, the combination of the systems theory and the theory of evolution can describe how communication – including religion and science – evolves and is structured.
A comprehensive investigation of household life during the Upper Paleolithic era. What was home and family like in Paleolithic Europe? How did mobile hunter-gatherer families live, work, and play together in the fourteenth millennium BP? What were the functional and spatial constraints and markers of their domesticity-the processes that create and sustain a household? Despite the long recognized absence of comprehensive archaeological data on such ancient homes and hearths, the archaeologists in this volume begin unraveling the domesticity of the Upper Paleolithic by drawing on both an immense trove of new material evidence and comparative site data, and a range of incisive and illuminating ethnographic analogies, theoretical models, and simulations. Five Late Magdalenian sites from the Paris Basin and one later Azilian site provide striking evidence of well preserved camps of short duration, situated on valley bottoms and buried by gentle floods. Of particular interest and value is the site of Verberie, rich in lithic tools, faunal remains, hearts, and other indicators of spatial organization, which has been excavated continuously for twenty-six years by the same director and provides an unparalleled source of information on Paleolithic domesticity. The first group of essays and reports look at the technology and demographic evidences of domesticity; the second set seeks clues to the spatial patterning of Paleolithic households; while the final essays draw on ethnographic analogies to reconstruct and interpret gendered divisions of labor, perishable technologies, and other activities not directly recognizable from archaeological remains.
This paper investigates the relationship between personhood and family in light of the impact that radical embodied cognition has had in anthropological theory over the past years. The paper is based on a study of onomastic seriality among siblings and cohabiting cousins in Brazil, where it became clear that interruption of the series is more common than full compliance. Since name attribution is a central aspect of launching early personal ontogeny, the paper argues that this kind of interrupted seriality amounts to a narrative strategy of triangulation that fosters the creative imagining of familial persons. The paper attempts to deepen our understanding of the modes of operation of personhood by diverging from the established representationist theories of cognition that remain dominant in anthropological circles. © 2016 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved.
The “meme” concept is usually attributed to Dawkins. It does, however, have a much longer history, predating the acceptance of the “gene” concept in early twentieth century biology. This chapter traces the history of the “meme” meme and explores the role of intentionality
—or its exclusion—in the analogies drawn between biological and cultural evolution. There are three main problems with the “meme” meme in its current forms: a taken-for-granted gene-centric view of evolution; a disembodied notion of culture as the transmission of unit “ideas”; and the misleading promise of connecting biology and culture that is based on yet another taken-for-granted assumption: that biological and cultural evolution are ultimately two quite separate realms.
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