# Philippe Descola

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Philippe_Descola
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Philippe_Descola.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Descola
> Source revision: 1324047673
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|French anthropologist (born 1949)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| region           = French philosophy
| era              = Contemporary philosophy/[Social anthropology](/source/Social_anthropology)/[Ethnology](/source/Ethnology)/[Social science](/source/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](/source/Structuralism)
| main_interests   = [Anthropology](/source/Anthropology), [Epistemology](/source/Epistemology), [Ethnology](/source/Ethnology), [Ontology](/source/Ontology) 
| notable_ideas    = The four ontologies (animism, totemism, analogism, naturalism)
| signature        = 
}}

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

== Background ==
Descola first graduated in philosophy at the [École normale supérieure de Lyon](/source/%C3%89cole_normale_sup%C3%A9rieure_de_Lyon) and later turned to anthropology, and became a student of [Claude Lévi-Strauss](/source/Claude_L%C3%A9vi-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](/source/Ecuador) began in 1976 and were funded by [CNRS](/source/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](/source/University_of_S%C3%A3o_Paulo), [Beijing](/source/Peking_University), [Chicago](/source/University_of_Chicago), [Montreal](/source/University_of_montreal), [London School of Economics](/source/London_School_of_Economics), [Cambridge](/source/Cambridge_University), [St. Petersburg](/source/Saint_Petersburg_State_University), [Buenos Aires](/source/University_of_Buenos_Aires), [Gothenburg](/source/University_of_Gothenburg), [Uppsala](/source/Uppsala_University) and [Leuven](/source/Universit%C3%A9_catholique_de_Louvain). He has given lectures in over forty universities and academic institutions abroad, including the [Beatrice Blackwood](/source/Beatrice_Blackwood) Lecture at [Oxford](/source/University_of_Oxford), the George Lurcy Lecture at Chicago, the Munro Lecture at Edinburgh, the Radcliffe-Brown Lecture at [the British Academy](/source/the_British_Academy), the Clifford Geertz Memorial Lecture at [Princeton](/source/Princeton_University), the Jensen Lecture at Frankfurt and the Victor Goldschmidt Lecture at [Heidelberg](/source/Heidelberg). He has chaired the Société des Américanistes since 2002 and the scientific committee of the [Fondation Fyssen](/source/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](/source/Honorary_fellow) of the [Royal Anthropological Institute](/source/Royal_Anthropological_Institute_of_Great_Britain_and_Ireland) and received in 2015 the [honoris causa](/source/honoris_causa) doctorate from the [University of Montreal](/source/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](/source/Social_anthropology) at the [Collège de France](/source/Coll%C3%A8ge_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](/source/Bruno_Latour). This new and controversial trend has been dubbed the "[narrow ontological turn](/source/ontological_turn)",<ref>[Marshall Sahlins](/source/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](/source/Ordre_des_Palmes_Acad%C3%A9miques)<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](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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](/source/French_Legion_of_Honor)
* 2011: Édouard Bonnefous Prize from [Academy of Moral and Political Science](/source/Acad%C3%A9mie_des_Sciences_Morales_et_Politiques)s<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.institutdefrance.fr/actualites-agenda/|title=Actualités & Agenda|accessdate=4 December 2023}}</ref>
* 2012: [CNRS Gold Medal](/source/CNRS_Gold_medal)
* 2014: [International Cosmos Prize](/source/International_Cosmos_Prize)
* 2016: Commander in the [French Legion of Honor](/source/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)]

{{Authority control}}

{{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

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Philippe Descola](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Descola) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Descola?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.