Books & ideas

The Origins of Environmental History

Kevin Bouillot — 2026-04-28T07:03:34Z

Our understanding of nature differs from that of the Greeks and Romans. From the “month of the ox” to “the forest goddess,” the ancients never thought to separate humans from the flora and fauna around them.

On the lookout for catastrophe

Dimitri Robin — 2026-01-08T08:46:00Z

Primitive societies, Lévy-Bruhl explains, are on the lookout for signs of catastrophes, though they are unpredictable. Since we, too, are in a constant state of alert, this insight should inspire us.

Medieval emotions

Julien Le Mauff — 2025-05-02T07:00:00Z

Basing her anthropological history on a rich body of source material, Régine Le Jan explores interpersonal relationships in the Early Middle Ages, arguing that they constitute one of the socio-political specificities of the Latin West.

The driving forces behind a massacre

David El Kenz — 2025-04-01T05:30:00Z

The ritual massacre perpetrated by the Natchez against several hundred French settlers in Louisiana on 28 November 1729 was the starting point of a colonial violence against a tribe that lasted until its near disappearance.

Ritual Matters

Jean-François Bert — 2025-02-20T08:30:00Z

In the tradition of Marcel Mauss, Pierre Lemonnier examines the male initiation rites of the Baruya of New Guinea not in terms of the signifier that can be attached to them, but rather the action on matter that they make possible.

Figuration and its Modalities

Grégory Delaplace — 2023-11-21T08:00:00Z

Images are nothing but figurations of our relationship to the world, that is, of our ways of worlding. P. Descola demonstrates this in a monumental study that does justice to the diversity of cultures, time periods, and artworks.

Hunting high and low

Jean-Louis Fabiani — 2023-10-10T07:37:47Z

Hunters are more concerned about nature's fragility than most people realize. They are the first to witness it, and their relationship with animals is not just one of blind predation.

Social sciences in the face of disorder

Marielle Debos — 2022-01-06T13:35:31Z

How can social sciences think through the constitutive disorder of a society? When groups marked by “bad reputation” refuse to be an object of knowledge, how can we write about them? This is the challenge presented to researchers by the Tubu of Chad.

Listen to the Birds

Priscilla Wald — 2020-09-07T07:00:00Z

Once seen as omens, birds continue to point to the future: a few years ago, their change of behavior heralded the beginning of avian flu. Two anthropological studies focus on these avian sentinels. A closer observation of the relationships between species, they argue, would help us better prepare for the pandemics to come.

Nature Beyond Dualism

Claire Larroque — 2020-04-06T07:00:00Z

Modernity has been built on the idea of a fundamental divide between nature and culture, humans and non-humans, the world and the spirit. These distinctions are no longer viable, as shown by an interdisciplinary and collectively authored book.