The ends of the world
By: Déborah Danowski and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro ; translated by Rodrigo Nunes
Contributors: Castro, Eduardo Batalha Viveiros de, author
Edition: English edition.
Publisher: Polity Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 186
ISBN-13: 9781509503971; 9781509503988
Subjects: Fear; Philosophy; Metaphysics; End of the world
Work titles: Há mundo por vir?
Description: "The end of the world is a seemingly interminable topic; 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 Deborah 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; 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"--
Notes: "First published in Portuguese as Há mundo por vir? Ensaio sobre os medos e os fins, © Déborah Danowski and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, 2014 (revised edition 2015)"--Title page verso.

Translated from the Portuguese.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 124-168) and index.
Table of contents: title: What a rough beast...; title: ...Its hour come round at last...; title: ...Slouches toward Bethelem to be born?; title: The outside without thought, or the death of the other; title: Alone at last; title: A world of people; title: Humans and terrans in the Gaia war; title: Conclusion: world on the brink.