How Forests Think

Eduardo Kohn

Published by University of California Press 2013

How Forests Think

Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human

Eduardo Kohn

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520956865

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author information

KohnEduardo:

Eduardo Kohn is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at McGill University.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
Introduction: Runa Puma Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Open Whole Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
2. The Living Th ought Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
3. Soul Blindness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
4. Trans-Species Pidgins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
5. Form’s Eff ortless Effi cacy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
6. The Living Future (and the Imponderable Weight of the Dead) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Epilogue: Beyond Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259