{"product_id":"forms-of-the-visible-an-anthropology-of-figuration-hardback-9781509561964","title":"Forms of the Visible; An Anthropology of Figuration (Hardback) 9781509561964","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eForms of the Visible\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eAn Anthropology of Figuration\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003ePhilippe Descola (Author), Catherine Porter (Translated by)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781509561964, Polity Press\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 26 September 2025\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e656 pages\u003cbr\u003e23.1 x 15.8 x 3.3 cm, 1.089 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Vast, magisterial, and unsettling, \u003ci\u003eForms of the Visible\u003c\/i\u003e offers powerful tools for a more precise and more relevant global history of art. No one thinks about images more expansively and urgently than Philippe Descola.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJoseph Leo Koerner, Harvard University\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"In putting his ontological framework to the test of images, Philippe Descola opens a wholly original way of looking at figuration across the entire ethnographic and historical spectrum. With its incisive thinking, breadth of scholarship, and multitude of insights, Forms of the Visible is a veritable tour de force. Neither the discipline of art history nor the anthropology of art will ever be the same.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Lambek, University of Toronto Scarborough\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Philippe Descola occupies a unique position in the field of social anthropology. Building on the long periods of fieldwork he has spent in Amazonia, the Northwest Coast of America, and Malaysia, he has developed a truly global anthropology of the image. Using a dazzling variety of case studies from Amazonian body painting to Florentine Renaissance painting, and from Dutch seventeenth-century interiors to Yup'ik masks, this book redefines the parameters for any truly global study of image-making for the coming decades.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCaroline van Eck, University of Cambridge\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eImagery and figuration are not just figments of an artist’s imagination.  Perception and imagination are always shaped by what habit has taught us to discern.  The visual path we spontaneously trace through the world depends on where we are situated in the four regions of the ontological archipelago: animism, naturalism, totemism or analogism. Each of these four regions corresponds to a way of conceiving the objects that make up the world, of perceiving the continuities and discontinuities in the folds of the world and of drawing the dividing lines between humans and nonhumans.  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e From Alaskan Yup’ik masks and Aboriginal bark paintings to miniature landscapes from the Song dynasty and Dutch Golden Age interior scenes: each image reveals, through what it shows or fails to show, a certain figurative regime, identifiable by the formal means it uses and by the device through which it can unleash its power to act.  The figurative regime enables us to grasp – sometimes better than words can – the contrasting ways of living that characterize the human condition and its relation to the nonhuman.  By comparing a great diversity of visual images and artworks, Descola masterfully lays the theoretical foundations for an anthropology of figuration.  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e One of the world’s leading anthropologists, Philippe Descola has developed a comparative anthropology of relations between humans and nonhumans that has revolutionized both the human sciences and our ways of thinking about the great ecological issues of our time.  His new book will be of great value to students and scholars of anthropology, visual art and art history and to anyone interested in art, culture and the relations between the human and nonhuman worlds.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePreface\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e1. The Folds of the World\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLayers of invisibility\u003cbr\u003eThe embodied sign\u003cbr\u003eOntologies of images\u003cbr\u003eGeometries of figuration\u003cbr\u003eForms of ostension and powers to act\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePART ONE: PRESENCES\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e2. Embodied Spirits\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnimal persons\u003cbr\u003eThink animals\u003cbr\u003eWho's there?\u003cbr\u003eDistinguishing resemblances\u003cbr\u003eOntological camouflage\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e3. Multiplying Viewpoints\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e4. Relational Identities\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePART TWO. INDICES\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e5. Types of Beings and Courses of Life\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFiguring the ordering\u003cbr\u003eFiguring the organizer\u003cbr\u003eFiguring the traces of the organizing\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e6. A Heraldry of Qualities\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e7. The Power of Traces\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eVariation 1. Repertoire-Image and Person-Image\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePART THREE. CORRESPONDENCES\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e8. Exercises in Composition Hybrids and chimeras\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePictured bonds\u003cbr\u003eThe great world and the small one\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e9. Conjunctive Spaces\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e10. Role Playing\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePART FOUR: SIMULACRA\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e11. Facing the World\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe conquest of the visible\u003cbr\u003ePainting the soul\u003cbr\u003eInstituting nature\u003cbr\u003eToward immanence\u003cbr\u003eImpossible objectivity\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e12. Objectivizing the Subjective\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e13. Detecting Resemblance\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eVariation 2. Playing on All Fronts\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConclusion. Image-Making\u003cbr\u003eOntologies\u003cbr\u003eForms\u003cbr\u003eAgencies Incarnations\u003cbr\u003ePostscript. Scaffoldings\u003cbr\u003eThe quarrel over resemblance\u003cbr\u003eAnimating images\u003cbr\u003eImaged languages\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgements\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eBibliography\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003cbr\u003eList of Illustrations\u003cbr\u003eList of Tables\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eSubject Areas: Archaeology [\u003ca title=\"See our other books on Archaeology\" href=\"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/search?q=%22Archaeology%20%5BHD%5D%22\"\u003eHD\u003c\/a\u003e]\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Polity","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52453539119384,"sku":"9781509561964","price":27.19,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0730\/2037\/5320\/files\/9781509561964.jpg?v=1785286042","url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/forms-of-the-visible-an-anthropology-of-figuration-hardback-9781509561964","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}