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A Choreography of Fire. A Posthumanist Account of Australians and Eucalypts
Citation
Franklin, A, A Choreography of Fire. A Posthumanist Account of Australians and Eucalypts, The Mangle in Practice. Sciences, Society and Becoming, Duke University Press, A Pickering and K Guzik (ed), Durham, pp. 17-45. ISBN 978-0-8223-4373-8 (2008) [Research Book Chapter]
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2008 Duke University Press
Official URL: http://read.dukeupress.edu/content/the-mangle-in-p...
Abstract
In this chapter I ask whether there is anything to be gained by taking serionsly
a posthumanist analysis of the relarionship between humanity and the natural
world, one that in fact extinguishes dualism and produces only naturecultures
(Haraway 2003b, 5). I will examine this question through an analysis of
the relationship between eucalyptus (gum) trees and Australia. Most humanist
accounts, such as those developed in "traditional" social anthropology
and sociology, privilege the activity, agency, and representations of humans,
and in so doing render the natural world and its individual species as passive
and of interest only insofar as they provide a palette of meanings for essentially
human symbolism, dreamings, imaginaries (see Rival 1998; Douglas
1975,1996). Such an approach has an impeccable track record ranging from
Emile Durkheim to Mary Douglas, and it is not one I want to challenge here
per se. What I do want to challenge is the implicit assumption that this approach
is all there is to the relationship between nature and humanity, or all
we can say about it. Rather than only inquire about the meaning of nature (or
gum trees in this case), I also want to inquire about what it is they do, and,
importantly, what implications those acrions have for the world, themselves,
humans, and "the social."
Item Details
Item Type: | Research Book Chapter |
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Keywords: | social theory, nature, post humanism, Australia, eucalypts |
Research Division: | Human Society |
Research Group: | Sociology |
Research Field: | Social theory |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in the environmental sciences |
UTAS Author: | Franklin, A (Professor Adrian Franklin) |
ID Code: | 53970 |
Year Published: | 2008 |
Deposited By: | Sociology and Social Work |
Deposited On: | 2009-02-03 |
Last Modified: | 2015-02-11 |
Downloads: | 4 View Download Statistics |
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