Publisher Description

One of the foremost intellectuals of his generation, French philosopher of science Michel Serres (1930-2019) broke free from disciplinary dogmas. His reflections on science, culture, technology, art, and religion have proved foundational to scholars across the humanities. The contributors to Porous Becomings bring the inspirational and enigmatic world of Serres to the attention of anthropology. Through ethnographic encounters as diverse as angels and religious conversion in Ethiopia, the percolation of war in Bosnia, and incarcerated bodies crossing the Atlantic, the contributors showcase how Serres' interrogation of the fundamentals of human existence opens new pathways for anthropological knowledge. Proposing the notion of 'porosity' to characterize permeability across boundaries of time, space, literary genre, and academic discipline, they draw on Serres to map the constellations that connect humans, time, technology, and planet Earth. The volume concludes with a conversation between the editors and Vibrant Matter author Jane Bennett.

Contributors. Andreas Bandak, Jane Bennett, Tom Boylston, Steven D. Brown, Matei Candea, Alberto Corsin Jimenez, David Henig, Michael Jackson, Daniel M. Knight, Celia Lowe, Morten Nielsen, Stavroula Pipyrou, Elizabeth Povinelli, Andrew Shryock, Arpad Szakolczai

Author Biography

Andreas Bandak is Associate Professor in the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen and author of Exemplary Life: Modelling Sainthood in Christian Syria.

Daniel M. Knight is Reader in Social Anthropology at the University of St. Andrews and author of Vertiginous Life: An Anthropology of Time and the Unforeseen.

Table of Contents

Preface / Andreas Bandak and Daniel M. Knight  ix
Acknowledgments  xiii
Angel Hair Anthropology with Michel Serres / Andreas Bandak and Daniel M. Knight  1
Part I. Of Parasites and Contracts
1. Three Tales on the Arts of Entrapment: Natural Contracts, Melodic Contaminations, and Spiderweb Anthropologies / Alberto Corsín Jiménez  33
2. Under the Sign of Hermes: Transgression, the Trickster, and Natural Justice / Michael Jackson  49
3. Keeping to Oneself: Hospitality and the Magical Hoard in the Balga of Jordan / Andrew Shryock  69
Chapter 3 Postscript: Connective Tissue / Andrew Shryock  91
4. Serres, the Sea, the Human, and Anthropology / Celia Lowe  99
Part II. Bodies in Time
5. Variations of Bodies in Motion and Relation / Elizabeth A. Povinelli  117
6. When War Percolates: On Topologies of Earthly Violence in a Planetary Age / David Henig  135
7. Feeling Safe in a Panbiotic World / Steven D. Brown  153
8. Michel Serres and Gregory Bateson: Implicit Dialogue about a Recognitive Epistemology of Nature / Arpad Szakolczai  175
Part III. Knowledge Quests
9. Angelology / Tom Boylston  199
10. Forms of Proximity / Stavroula Pipyrou  215
11. Comedic Transubstantiation: The Hermesian Paradox of Being Funny among Stand-Up Comics in New York City / Morten Nielsen  233
12. Michel Serres, Wisdom, Anthropology / Matei Candea  253
Afterword: Conversations with Jane Bennett / Jane Bennett, Andreas Bandak, and Daniel M. Knight  273
References  289
Contributors  311
Index  315

Review

"This book will send many readers in search of what Michel Serres's work might illuminate in the present condition of the world. The authors unravel some of anthropology's conceptual straightjackets, thereby suggesting the discipline's potential for rethinking the Anthropocene. Serres, they hint, saves the baby of an adventurous humanism while draining away the politically dirtied bathwater of disciplinary intolerance." -- Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University
"Porous Becomings teems with immersive connectivity, opening new registers of sensemaking, flourishing, potentiality, and flux. This urgent and extraordinary collection traverses strata of existence that far exceed the human, yet slows the trip to inspire vital anthropological imaginations for our troubled times." -- Adriana Petryna, author of * Horizon Work: At the Edges of Knowledge in an Age of Runaway Climate Change *

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