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Ethology and Anthropology
Ethologie et anthropologie
From Umwelt to representational Worlds
Des mondes sensibles aux mondes de la représentation
Published on lundi, septembre 29, 2014
Summary
The objective of this workshop is to build disciplinary bridges and to by-pass various epistemological bolts which hinder the intimate knowledge of animal societies. A methodological anthropomorphism, with a comparative aim, would indeed allow us to fill in the gap between the respective fields of social sciences and animal sciences in the broader sense of the latter word.
Announcement
In A Stroll through the Worlds of Animals and Men, published in 1934, Jakob von Uexküll refuted the idea that animals could be reduced to a mere mechanism, responding to stimuli by reactions. Taking the tick for example, he showed how it perceives the world according to what makes sense in its surroundings. The theory of Umwelt, "surrounding world" or "sensitive world", provides every animal, human beings included, with an own particular world. The idea that all animals are endowed with a sensibility, that they interpret their environment and act accordingly, raises the question of Von Uexküll’s legacy, both for Ethology and for Anthropology. The hypothesis of a continuity amidst the animal reign was already present in the first worthy animal monograph, that of the anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan (1868). In his study on the life and works of the American beaver, he considers both human and non-human beings are endowed with a common mental principle. Such premises raise a challenging debate: what is the heuristic value of the "sensitive worlds "? What experimental or empirical approaches allow us to delineate both the "animal perspective” and the "Native point of view" such as defined by Malinowski? Are the "worlds" of social and solitary animals significantly different? What ecological, phylogenetic or cultural imperatives determine the constitution and the interpretation of these worlds?
Subjects
Places
- Maison René-Ginouvès. Archéologie et Ethnologie, salle F308 - 201 avenue de la Rébublique, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre
Nanterre, France (92)
Date(s)
- vendredi, octobre 10, 2014
Attached files
Keywords
- cognition comparée, Uexküll, sciences animales
Contact(s)
- Florent Kohler
courriel : florent [dot] kohler [at] gmail [dot] com
Information source
- Florent Kohler
courriel : florent [dot] kohler [at] gmail [dot] com
To cite this announcement
« Ethology and Anthropology », Study days, Calenda, Published on lundi, septembre 29, 2014, https://calenda-formation.labocleo.org/300294
