How Forest Think? By Eduardo Kohn


Hi everyone, today I'm gonna talk about a book I've been reading: How Forest Think? by Eduardo Kohn, a (north) American anthropologist. 

In this book Kohn wonders what it means to be alive or what it means to think, proposing questions like Can forests think? or Do dogs dream? This questions 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 fieldwork among the Runa of Ecuador’s Upper Amazon, 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. The classical anthropological tools or methods hinge on those capacities that make us distinctly human: capacity of symbolize, language, etc. However, change 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. This book, How Forests Think, seizes on this breakdown as an opportunity to make a anthropology beyond the human. 

For me 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 direction one that offers a more capacious way to think about the world we share with other kinds of beings.

Comentarios

  1. Barbara28 de junio de 2019 a las 14:16

    Hello!!! The book you've been reading sounds very interesting. I would like to read it

    ResponderEliminar
  2. Galvarino28 de junio de 2019 a las 14:31

    thanks for you recomendation, i will read the book

    ResponderEliminar
  3. Luis Pardo28 de junio de 2019 a las 14:32

    It sounds good. I searched for the book and it is in Libgen, so I will download it

    ResponderEliminar
  4. Araxzha Navarro García28 de junio de 2019 a las 14:33

    Hi. Thank you for sharing it with us, it's seems like a book that invites you to reflect beyond human understanding. And that's great I would like to read it some day.

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  5. Hugo Garay28 de junio de 2019 a las 14:41

    Oh Eduardo, sound good. I haven't paid attention in Kohn, but I'll keep it in mind for my readings on vacation

    ResponderEliminar
  6. Macarenita Otárola28 de junio de 2019 a las 20:22

    Hi!
    Wow! sometimes anthropology is amazing! Thanks for the information

    ResponderEliminar

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