Overview

How do people perceive the world around them? Why should their perceptions differ? In this work Tim Ingold offers a persuasive approach to understanding how human beings perceive their surroundings. He argues that what we are used to calling cultural variation consists, in the first place, of variations in skill. Neither innate nor acquired, skills are grown, incorporated into the human organism through practice and training in an environment. They are thus as much biological as cultural. To account for the generation of skills we have therefore to understand the dynamics of development. And this in turn calls for an ecological approach that situates practitioners in the context of an active engagement with the constituents of their surroundings. The twenty-three essays comprising this book focus in turn on the procurement of livelihood, on what it means to 'dwell', and on the nature of skill, weaving together approaches from social anthropology, ecological psychology, developmental biology and phenomenology in a way that has never been attempted before. The book is set to revolutionise the way we think about what is 'biological' and 'cultural' in humans, about evolution and history, and indeed about what it means for human beings - at once organisms and persons - to inhabit an environment. The Perception of the Environment will be essential reading not only for anthropologists but also for biologists, psychologists, archaeologists, geographers and philosophers.

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9780415228312

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Reviews

'The Perception of the Environment is a formidable work in terms of its intellectual breadth ... its sheer volume ... and methodical consistency and clarity.' - The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute ' ... this is an extremely significant book and quite possibly lives up to its promise to revolutionize the way we think . The book's power lies in its ability to push readers to places previously unimagined ... it is imperative that this book be read by as many people from as broad an audience as possible.' - Anthropological Forum

Taken as a series of meditations on the perils of abstraction, Infold's book is both salutary and frequently delightful. Insofar as it is a critique of the kinds of reified notions of 'culture' that have caught on in public debates around 'multiculturalism' and 'identity politics' (even as they have declined in anthropology) its emphasis on dwelling, practice, and embodiment is impeccable. -Mind, Culture, and Activity Ingold's spirited argument has incomparably enriched the debate among anthropologists concerning technology's universality, and the work is, I believe, destined to become a classic of the anthropological literature. Bryan Pfaffenberger. -Knowledge, Technology, and Policy A generation after the linguistic turn, Ingold's sortie presents a sondiserable challenge for historians. Joy. -Parr

Taken as a series of meditations on the perils of abstraction, Infold's book is both salutary and frequently delightful. Insofar as it is a critique of the kinds of reified notions of 'culture' that have caught on in public debates around 'multiculturalism' and 'identity politics' (even as they have declined in anthropology) its emphasis on dwelling, practice, and embodiment is impeccable. <br>-Mind, Culture, and Activity <br> Ingold's spirited argument has incomparably enriched the debate among anthropologists concerning technology's universality, and the work is, I believe, destined to become a classic of the anthropological literature. Bryan Pfaffenberger. <br>-Knowledge, Technology, and Policy <br> A generation after the linguistic turn, Ingold's sortie presents a sondiserable challenge for historians. Joy. <br>-Parr <br>

Author Information

Tim Ingold is Professor of Social Anthropology in the Department of Sociology, University of Aberdeen.

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