The Ends of the World

Description

The end of the world is a seemingly interminable topic Ð at least, of course, until it happens. Environmental catastrophe and planetary apocalypse are subjects of enduring fascination and, as ethnographic studies show, human cultures have approached them in very different ways. Indeed, in the face of the growing perception of the dire effects of global warming, some of these visions have been given a new lease on life. Information and analyses concerning the human causes and the catastrophic consequences of the planetary ‘crisis’ have been accumulating at an ever-increasing rate, mobilising popular opinion as well as academic reflection. In this book, philosopher Déborah Danowski and anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro offer a bold overview and interpretation of these current discourses on ‘the end of the world’, reading them as thought experiments on the decline of the West’s anthropological adventure Ð that is, as attempts, though not necessarily intentional ones, at inventing a mythology that is adequate to the present. This work has important implications for the future development of ecological practices and it will appeal to a broad audience interested in contemporary anthropology, philosophy, and environmentalism. 1: What Rough Beast… Metaphysics and Mythophysics 2: …Its Hour Come Round at Last… Gaia and Anthropos The End-of-the-World Perspective 3: …Slouches toward Bethlehem to Be Born? The World before Us The World after Us 4: The Outside without Thought, or the Death of the Other A Certain Worldless People of the Recent Past The Thanatological Argument “Nobody Will Miss It” 5: Alone at Last Ceci n’est pas un monde After the Future: The End as Beginning The Great Indoors: Tarde's Speculative Speleology 6: A World of People The End of Transformations, or the First Anthropocene Anthropomorphism contra Anthropocentrism The End of the World of the Indians 7: Humans and Terrans in the Gaia War The Impossible Species The End of the World as a Fractal Event World on the Brink To Believe in the World