{{Short description|French anthropologist (born 1949)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox philosopher | region = French philosophy | era = Contemporary philosophy/Social anthropology/Ethnology/Social science | image = Descola.jpg | image_size = | alt = Philippe Descola - June 2011 | caption = | name = Philippe Descola | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1949|6|19|df=y}} | birth_place = France | death_date = | death_place = | school_tradition = Structuralism | main_interests = Anthropology, Epistemology, Ethnology, Ontology | notable_ideas = The four ontologies (animism, totemism, analogism, naturalism) | signature = }}

'''Philippe Descola''', FBA ({{IPA|fr|fi.lip de.skɔ.la|lang}}; born 19 June 1949) is a French anthropologist noted for studies of the Achuar, one of several Jivaroan peoples, and for his contributions to anthropological theory.

== Background == Descola first graduated in philosophy at the École normale supérieure de Lyon and later turned to anthropology, and became a student of Claude Lévi-Strauss (who had followed the same academic path).<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2783493|title=An Interview with Philippe Descola|author1=Knight, John|author2=Rival, Laura|year=1992|journal=Anthropology Today|volume=8|issue=2|pages=9–13|accessdate=4 December 2023|jstor=2783493|doi=10.2307/2783493|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

His ethnographic studies in the Amazon region of Ecuador began in 1976 and were funded by CNRS. He lived with the Achuar from 1976 to 1978.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uuXg4p7biVgC&q=%22Philippe+Descola%22+&pg=PR15|title=In the Society of Nature: A Native Ecology in Amazonia|first=Philippe|last=Descola|date=4 December 1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-57467-9 |accessdate=4 December 2023|via=Google Books}}</ref> His reputation largely arises from these studies. As a professor, he has been invited several times to the Universities of São Paulo, Beijing, Chicago, Montreal, London School of Economics, Cambridge, St. Petersburg, Buenos Aires, Gothenburg, Uppsala and Leuven. He has given lectures in over forty universities and academic institutions abroad, including the Beatrice Blackwood Lecture at Oxford, the George Lurcy Lecture at Chicago, the Munro Lecture at Edinburgh, the Radcliffe-Brown Lecture at the British Academy, the Clifford Geertz Memorial Lecture at Princeton, the Jensen Lecture at Frankfurt and the Victor Goldschmidt Lecture at Heidelberg. He has chaired the Société des Américanistes since 2002 and the scientific committee of the Fondation Fyssen from 2001 to 2009, as well as holding memberships in many other scientific committees.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.college-de-france.fr/site/en-philippe-descola/biography.htm|title = Page non trouvée}}</ref> He has also be elected Honorary fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and received in 2015 the honoris causa doctorate from the University of Montreal, Canada.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/article/2015/10/30/luniversite-de-montreal-decerne-un-doctorat-honoris-causa-a-philippe-descola/ |title=L'Université de Montréal décerne un doctorat honoris causa à Philippe Descola &#124; UdeMNouvelles |access-date=30 June 2017 |archive-date=9 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109112022/https://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/article/2015/10/30/luniversite-de-montreal-decerne-un-doctorat-honoris-causa-a-philippe-descola/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> From 2000 to 2019, he was chair of anthropology at the Collège de France.

From his 2005 book ''Beyond Nature and Culture'' he has turned towards a more theoretical anthropology, reviving his philosophical studies to propose a new anthropological epistemology, influenced by the sociological work of his friend Bruno Latour. This new and controversial trend has been dubbed the "narrow ontological turn",<ref>Marshall Sahlins, « https://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.1.013 On the ontological scheme of Beyond nature and culture] », HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory Volume 4, n°1, 2014.</ref> and has been the subject of a fashion effect between 2014 and 2017, particularly in France.

His wife, Anne-Christine Taylor, is an ethnologist, specialist of Amazonian peoples.

== Distinctions == * 1996: CNRS Silver medal<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2145.htm?debut=16&theme1=9|title = Centre national de la recherche scientifique| date=27 June 2023 }}</ref> * 1997: Knight of the French Order of Academic Palms<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.college-de-france.fr/site/philippe-descola/index.htm |title = College de France biographical note| date=11 April 2022 }}</ref> * 2004: French National Order of Merit<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000000247328|title=Décret du 14 mai 2004 portant promotion et nomination – Légifrance|accessdate=4 December 2023}}</ref> * 2006: Foreign Honorary Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://lettre.ehess.fr/index.php?3815|title = Prix et distinctions|date = 2 May 2012}}</ref> * 2010: Elected as corresponding fellow of the British Academy<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/elections/2010.cfm |title=Results of 2010 Fellowship Elections – British Academy |accessdate=2010-10-13 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100924210235/http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/elections/2010.cfm |archivedate=2010-09-24 }}</ref> * 2010: Officer in the French Legion of Honor * 2011: Édouard Bonnefous Prize from Academy of Moral and Political Sciences<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.institutdefrance.fr/actualites-agenda/|title=Actualités & Agenda|accessdate=4 December 2023}}</ref> * 2012: CNRS Gold Medal * 2014: International Cosmos Prize * 2016: Commander in the French Legion of Honor<ref>[http://www.legiondhonneur.fr/sites/default/files/promotion/lh20160327.pdf Legion of Honor website]</ref> * 2022: Winner of the Principality Prize <ref>[https://en.gouv.mc/Policy-Practice/Culture/News/The-Principality-Prize Philosophical Encounters of Monaco and the Prince Pierre of Monaco Foundation website]</ref>

== Partial bibliography == * {{Cite book | publisher = Cambridge University Press | last = Descola | first = Philippe | others = Nora Scott (trans.) | title = In the society of nature: a native ecology in Amazonia | location = Cambridge; New York | series = Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology 93 | date = 1994 | oclc = 27974392}} * {{Cite book | publisher = New Press | last = Descola | first = Philippe | others = Janet Lloyd (trans.) | title = The spears of twilight: life and death in the Amazon jungle | location = New York | date = 1996 | oclc = 34471521}} * {{Cite Q| Q113836660 }} * {{Cite book | publisher = University of Chicago Press | last = Descola | first = Philippe | others = Janet Lloyd (trans.) | title = Beyond Nature and Culture | location = Chicago | date = 2013 | oclc = 809911095}} * ''Les Formes du visible'', Paris:Seuil, 2021, {{ISBN|978-2-02-147698-9}}

==Further reading== {{main|List of important publications in anthropology}}

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20061123112444/http://www.ehess.fr/centres/las/ Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale (Official site)] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20061117030820/http://www.ehess.fr/centres/las/pages/equipes/invariants-descola.html Research] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20061006132120/http://www.college-de-france.fr/site/anthrop/p998923384551.htm Collège de France Chaire d'Anthropologie de la nature] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071022112031/http://www.radiofrance.fr/chaines/france-culture2/emissions/chemins/fiche.php?diffusion_id=37449 Radio France Article] * [http://www.laviedesidees.fr/Who-owns-nature.html Who owns nature ?], by Philippe Descola, ''La Vie des idées'', 21 janvier 2008. * [https://www.sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1944481 Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 3 February 2015 (video)]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Descola, Philippe}} Category:Living people Category:ENS Fontenay-Saint-Cloud-Lyon alumni Category:French anthropologists Category:1949 births Category:Corresponding fellows of the British Academy Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences