Christoph Wulf

Nathanaël Wallenhorst

This Handbook is a collection of contributions of more than 300 researchers who have worked to grasp the Anthropocene, this new geological epoch characterised by a modification of the conditions of habitability of the Earth for all living things, in its biogeophysical and socio-political reality. These researchers also sought to define a historical and prospective anthropology that integrates social, economic, cultural and political issues as well as, of course, environmental ones. What are the anthropological changes needed to ensure that our human adventure will be able to continue in the Anthropocene? And what are the educational and political issues involved? Anthropocene is fast becoming a widely-used term, but thus far, there been no reference work explaining the thoughts of the greatest experts of the present day on this subject (at the intersection of biogeophysical and socio-political knowledge). A scientific and political concept (but which is also the conceptual vehicle for conveying the scientific community's sense of concern), this complex term is explained by international experts as they reflect on scientific arguments taking place in earth system science, the social sciences and the humanities. What these researchers from different disciplines have in common is a healthy concern for the future and how to prepare for it in the Anthropocene and also the identification of possible anthropological changes. This Handbook encourages readers to immerse themselves in reflections on the human adventure through descriptions of our differing heritages and the future that is in the process of being written.

Humans between Heritage and Future

Handbook of the Anthropocene

Isabel Capeloa Gil

Since culture, the media and the arts deal with the perception and the processing of catastrophe, what kind of social knowledge does this process produce and how does it contribute to the sustainable development of societies? The book seeks to understand how societies and cultures deal with disaster and the rhetorical means they resort to in order to represent it. It is situated on the cusp between the response to natural catastrophe, the renewed awareness of human vulnerability in the face of environmental hazard and irresponsible policies and the social role of traditional knowledge and humanistic ideas for the preservation of human communities. It aims to be diverse, in disciplinary allegiance and cultural situation, and relevant, by bringing together articles by well-known scholars and policy makers to jointly discuss the possibilities of reframing hazard for the future, so that one may learn from restored behavior instead of repeating the mistakes of the past.

Disaster, Representation and the Assessment of Risk

Hazardous Future

Roberto Marchesini

Gabriele Brandstetter

Olivier Richon

Bernd Hüppauf

Verena Kuni

André Krebber

Nicky Coutts

Miriam Hoffmann

Linda Keck

Susanne Schwertfeger

Franziska Winter

Das vorliegende Heft untersucht, wie Tiere in das Feld, das durch die Begriffe Mimesis, Mimikry und Mimese markiert wird, eingeschrieben sind. Die tierliche und die menschliche Geschichte der Mimesis, Mimikry und Mimese sind in vielfältiger Weise miteinander verwoben. Und tierliche wie menschliche Mimesis sind konzeptionell, materiell, motivisch, stilistisch, metaphorisch, rhetorisch, performativ oder partizipativ miteinander verknüpft. Mit Hilfe von Texten zu den theoretischen Grundlagen der Mimesis-Forschung, konkreten Fallbeispielen aus den Kulturwissenschaften und künstlerischen Beiträgen werden in diesem Band von Tierstudien unterschiedliche Umgangsweisen mit diesen Phänomenen genauer betrachtet. So widmet sich ein anthropologisch ausgerichteter Text dem Vergleich des mimetischen Lernens von menschlichen und nicht-menschlichen Tieren, ein anderer kommentiert Theodor W. Adornos klassische Mimesiskonzeption im Hinblick auf Tiere und ein weiterer fokussiert die Handlungsmacht von Tieren bei der Untersuchung von Mimesistheorien. Zwei kunsthistorische Beiträge beschäftigen sich mit der nachahmenden Darstellung von Insekten in der Trompe-l'œil-Malerei, ein anderer kulturgeschichtlich ausgerichteter Text untersucht die medienwissenschaftlichen Implikationen von Spinnen und Spinnenrepräsentationen. Weitere Beiträge zum performativen Tier-Werden im Tanz, zur mimetischen Qualität von Dioramen in Naturkundemuseen und zur Verbindung von Mimesis und Ökologie verdeutlichen die Breite des Themenspektrums. Abgerundet wird der Band von zwei fotografischen Arbeiten, von denen die eine auf tradierte Mimesiskonzepte der Malerei rekurriert und die andere sich mit dem biologischen Phänomen der Mimikry auseinandersetzt.

Tierstudien 11/2017

Mimesis, Mimikry, Mimese

Educational anthropology constitutes a new and important field of education. It deals with central educational concepts from an anthropological perspective. As historical and cultural anthropology, it takes into account the historicity and culturality of education. The book focuses on major issues of education: The Problem of Human Perfectibility and the Difficulty of Human Change, Mimesis in Education, Culture and Anthropology, Global and Intercultural Education, and Educational Anthropology: A New Perspective on Education. Christoph Wulf is professor of educational anthropology and member of the Interdisciplinary Center for Historical Anthropology at the Freie Universitt, Berlin.

Anthropology of Education

Bernd Huppauf

In this interdisciplinary anthology, essays study the relationship between the imagination and images both material and mental. Through case studies on a diverse array of topics including photography, film, sports, theater, and anthropology, contributors focus on the role of the creative imagination in seeing and producing images and the imaginary.

The Image between the Visible and the Invisible

Dynamics and Performativity of Imagination

Bringing the image into dialogue with the imagination, mimesis and performativity, Christoph Wulf illuminates the historical, cultural and philosophical aspects of the relationship between images and human beings, looking both at its conceptual and physical manifestations. Wulf explores the cultural power of the image. He shows that images take root in our personal and collective imaginaries to determine how we feel, how we perceive the arts and culture, and how our bodies respond with physical actions, in games and dance to rituals and gesture. By showing how imagination occupies an essential place in our daily conduct, Wulf makes a significant contribution to how we think about the role of images in culture, the arts and society.

Imagination, Mimesis, Performativity

Human Beings and their Images

Gunter Gebauer

"A fundamental historical account of the much-cited but little-studied concept of mimesis, and an essential starting point for all future discussions of this crucial critical concept."—Hayden White

Culture Art Society

Mimesis

Axel Michaels

Challenging the idea that rituals are static and emotions irrational, the volume explores the manifold qualities of emotions in ritual practices. Focusing explicitly on the relationship between emotions and rituals, it poses two central questions. First, how and to what extent do emotions shape rituals? Second, in what way are emotions ritualized in and beyond rituals? Strong emotions are generally considered to be more spontaneous and uncontrolled, whereas ritual behaviour is regarded as planned, formalized and stereotyped, and hence less emotional. However, as the volume demonstrates, rituals often reveal strong emotions among participants, are motivated by feelings, or are intended to generate them. The essays discuss the motivation for rituals; the healing function of emotions; the creation of new emotions through new media; the aspect of mimesis in the generation of feelings; individual, collective, and non-human emotions; the importance of trance and possession; staged emotions and emotions on stage; emotions in the context of martyrdom; emotions in Indian and Western dance traditions; emotions of love, sorrow, fear, aggression, and devotion. Furthermore, aesthetic and sensory dimensions, as well as emic concepts, of emotions in rituals are underscored as relevant in understanding social practice.

South Asian and European Perspectives on Rituals and Performativity

Emotions in Rituals and Performances

This volume critically examines the role of science in the humanities and social sciences. It studies how cultures and societies in South Asia and Europe underwent a transformation with the adoption or adaptation of scientific methods, turning ancient cultural processes and phenomena into an enhanced scientific structure. The chapters in this book Discuss the development of science as a method in modern and historical contexts and the differences between modern science, scientification and pseudoscience. Study the interactions between bodies of knowledge such as Sanskrit and computer science; mathematics and Vedic mathematics; science and philosophy. Drawing on textual material, extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of philosophy, Indology, history, linguistics, history and philosophy of science and social science.

Science and Scientification in South Asia and Europe

Michalis Kontopodis

Christos Varvantakis

Global Youth in Digital Trajectories explores the most recent developments regarding youth and media in a global perspective. Representing an innovative contribution to virtual research methods, this book presents research carried out in areas as diverse as Greece, the Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Russia, and India. The volume examines which new anthropological, and cultural-historical conditions and changes arise in connection with the widespread presence of digital media in the lives of the networked teens. Indeed, it is highlighted that the differentiation between an offline world and an online world is inapplicable to the lives of most young people. Exploring youth’s imaginary productions, personal sense-making processes and cross-media dialogues in today’s multimedia worlds, Global Youth in Digital Trajectories will be of particular interest to undergraduates and postgraduates in the fields of sociology, anthropology, education studies, media research and cultural studies. It may also appeal to practitioners in social work and schools. URL for circulation: www.routledge.com/9781138236035

Global Youth in Digital Trajectories

Professor of Classical Indology Axel Michaels

This intriguing book engages with the concept of the body in its cultural context by acknowledging and demonstrating that the human body is understood differently in Western and Indian cultures. The contributors go on to show that any attempt to put forward a single concept of the body within Indian culture would be misleading. Divided into three parts, the book examines the considerable and often conflicting variations in body images and body concepts. In Part One the contributors focus on the representation of the body in religious and philosophical texts; representations that emerged from reading, translating and interpreting classical writings from diverse historical and anthropological approaches. Through predominantly ethnographic studies, Part Two explores the role of the body in narratives and ritual performance, from dance to ritualistic ceremonies. Visualisation processes of the body are examined in Part Three, focusing on developments in modern and contemporary periods: from visual practices at the Mughal court, to the multiple bodies of the bride, and the influence of new media. This volume is a fascinating collection of articles for those in the fields of sociology and anthropology, history, religion, cultural studies and South Asian studies.

Images of the Body in India

Tobias Werler

Hidden Dimensions of Education

Mimese Na Cultura - Agir Social -

This fascinating volume offers a transdisciplinary and transcultural approach to understanding the senses by exploring themes in anthropologies of sound, sight, smell, taste, touch, and movement as expressed through aesthetic, perceptual, religious, and spiritual experiences. In drawing upon comparative perspectives from Indian and Western theories, the essays demonstrate the integral relation of senses with each other as well as with allied notions of the body, emotion and cultural memory. Stressing the continued relevance of senses as they manifest in a globalized world under the influence of new media, this work will interest scholars of anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, ritual studies, psychology, religion, philosophy, and history.

Exploring the Senses

Originally published in German, Christoph Wulf’s Anthropology sets its sights on a topic as ambitious as its title suggests: anthropology itself. Arguing for an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach to anthropology that incorporates science, philosophy, history, and many other disciplines, Wulf examines—with breathtaking scope—all the ways that anthropology has been understood and practiced around the globe and through the years. Seeking a central way to understand anthropology in the midst of many different approaches to the discipline, Wulf concentrates on the human body. An emblem of society, culture, and time, the body is also the result of many mimetic processes—the active acquisition of cultural knowledge. By examining the role of the body in the performance of rituals, gestures, language, and other forms of imagination, he offers a bold new look at how culture is produced, handed down, and transformed. Drawing such examinations into a comprehensive and sophisticated assessment of the discipline as a whole, Anthropology looks squarely at the mystery of humankind and the ways we have attempted to understand it.

A Continental Perspective

Anthropology

Joan Ramon Resina

Repetition is constitutive of human life. Unlike simple recall, repetition is permeated by the past and the present and is oriented toward the future. This book investigates the significance of different forms of repetition in literature, culture, and society through studies of the function and importance of an array of repetitive phenomenon.

How Cultural Renewal Works

Repetition, Recurrence, Returns

Gunther Kress

Staffan Selander

Roger Säljö

This book studies learning as a social enterprise, contextually situated, organized and assessed. It gives a broad theoretic grounding for an understanding of learning which goes beyond a common reductionist approach. The book discusses four related approaches to learning which share a social perspective: social semiotics and multimodality; a design-theoretic approach to learning; a socio-cultural perspective; and a perspective of mimetic learning. Contributing authors consider the theoretical question of how to understand educational systems, learning and social communication as historically situated practices. The chapters in this book analyze key working practices including: analyzing what learning, remembering and cognitive work is like in a practice involving different kinds of expertise; problem-solving and engaging through collaboration; learning and teaching in different formal, semi- and non-formal environments; a design-theoretic approach to learning; social semiotic perspectives on learning; the mimetic and ritual dimension of learning; how social learning can be organized to support students; how learning has been conceptualized in psychology and neighbouring research areas. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers interested in learning and meaning-making, multimodal representations and communication, designs for learning, education and teaching, and social achievement in different formal and non-formal contexts.

Christoph Wulf

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