Life in suspension

Inspirado pelo trabalho etnográfico com mergulhadores profissionais, cujas habi lidades e tecnologia são relevantes para o modo como astronautas treinam na terra e sobrevivem no espaço sideral, este artigo teoriza sobre o que significa para humanos viver em suspensão. Eu argumento que encontros científicos com ambientes extraterrestres são marcados pela coexistência de tropos de superfície e suspensão, que falam de modos contrastantes de corporizar e conceber vida extrema. O contraste entre os tropos de superfície e suspensão ressoa profundamente com, sugiro, alguns dos desafios que os extremófilos – organismos que vicejam em ambientes extremos – apresentam para visões neodarwinistas de evolução. Eu concluo salientando as relações emaranhadas entre sentir e pensar que existem na conceitualização de relações ambientais.Inspired by ethnographic work with professional scuba divers, whose skills and technology are relevant to how astronauts train on earth and survive in outer space, this article theorizes about what it means for humans to live in suspension. I argue that scientific encounters with extra-terrestrial environments are marked by the co-existence of surface and suspension tropes that speak of contrasting ways of embodying and conceiving extreme life. The contrast between surface and suspension tropes resonates profoundly with, I suggest, some of the challenges that extremophiles – organism that thrive in extreme environments – present for Neo- Darwinian views on evolution. I conclude by stressing the entangled relat ionship between feeling and thinking that exists in the conceptualisation of environmental relations

With the past under your feet: on the development of time concepts in archaeology

Introduction If there is something fundamental about archaeology, it is that it deals with time. As its name suggests, it is interested in what is ancient and therefore past. Even though there are other sciences that share this interest, archaeology is characterized by a particular set of practices that makes it unique. These practices seem to have an influence on the way time is conceptualized in archaeology, which contrasts with other scientific and non-scientific understandings of it. But ..

With the past under your feet: on the development of time concepts in archaeology

A compreensão do passado na arqueologia é muito influenciada pela maneira como o tempo é espacializado nesta disciplina. Baseado em trabalho de campo etnográfico entre arqueólogos, este artigo examina o uso das expressões sobre o tempo e a relação entre palavras e gestos. Demonstra-se que conceitos importantes na disciplina referem-se à experiência em face de um passado profundo sob o solo e de uma temporalidade vertical, que evolui do fundo ao topo. A analise traz ideias sobre a relação entre movimento corporal e conceitualização diferentes daquelas da linguística cognitiva, demonstrando que os conceitos não são entidades abstratas, mas são co-emergentes e contínuos com as maneiras como os arqueólogos se apropriam do ambiente gravitacional na prática. Isto tem implicações importantes para se compreender como o conhecimento é constituído nas ciências que escavam o passado, que desafia algumas compreensões difundidas do conhecimento disciplinar como entidades autocontidas que se destacam de um encontro ecológico com o mundo das coisas

A Solid Fluids Lexicon

In our discussions around the theme of solid fluids, we often had resort to everyday words, many of them of ancient derivation and rich in association. We decided to make a list of some of the words that came up most often – barring those that already figured as the principal characters of individual contributions – and to distribute among ourselves the task of writing a sort of mini-biography for each. The resulting lexicon with nineteen entries, ranging from ‘cloud’ and ‘concrete’ to ‘wave’ and ‘wood’, serves as a conclusion to the collection as a whole

En presencia de lo ausente. Rastreando materiales en movimiento

Archaeology is characterized by an encounter with both present and absent properties of materials in a constantly changing world. Understanding these properties depends on developing a capacity to perceive beyond what is visible on the surface. To do so, archaeologists have to multisensorially engage not only with the fluctuations of the environment but also make use of both memory and imagination. Grounded on recent ethnographic work, I show how the assumed distinction between perceptual and non-perceptual aspects of experience does not allow us to understand how archaeologists learn to dig. Remembering and imagining unfold in continuity with feeling, which emerges as archaeologists become part of the history of the landscape while tracing the footsteps of others. Such experience challenges not only the widespread sequential understanding of cognition but also the pointillist view of knowledge production. From a sensory openness to both present and absent properties of a world in constant formation, the tension between discovery and construction dissolves.La práctica arqueológica se caracteriza por un encuentro con las propiedades ausentes y presentes de los materiales en un mundo en constante cambio. Entender dichas propiedades depende del desarrollo de la habilidad de percibir más allá de lo visible a nivel de la superficie. Para llevar a cabo esto, los arqueólogos deben involucrarse multisensorialmente no sólo con las fluctuaciones del ambiente sino que, a su vez, hacer uso de su memoria e imaginación. Partiendo de trabajo etnográfico reciente, muestro que, a medida que los arqueólogos aprenden a excavar, la distinción entre aspectos preceptúales y no preceptúales no siempre se sigue. Aquí el recuerdo y la imaginación se desplegarían en una continuidad con el sentir, la cual emerge a medida que los arqueólogos se involucran en la historia del paisaje rastreando los pasos de otros. Esta experiencia desafía no sólo el entendimiento secuencial de la cognición sino que a su vez la visión puntillista de la producción del conocimiento. Desde una apertura sensorial a los aspectos presentes y ausentes de un mundo en constante cambio la tensión entre descubrimiento y construcción se disuelve

Geological resonances: learning to be affected by earth forces in the Anthropocene

The Anthropocene — term proposed recently to designate the current geological epoch — is framed under the question of human impact on earth processes at a planetary scale. Addressed simultaneously to everyone and no one, the Anthropocene interpellates a global human, impossible to find anywhere. Such a narrative would coincide with a general trend in modern science to access knowledge through an epistemic distance from nature. This narrative would come into tension with the ways in which geological knowledge is founded. Based on ethnographic work with geologists involved in the extraction of limestone — the central ingredient in the production of cement, the binder of concrete — this article reflects on how experts in earth history are affected by the trajectories of the materials they study. Contrary to the disaffection that the image of the Anthropocene entails, the article shows how geologists — as well as the engineers and miners with whom they collaborate — tend to resonate affectively with the trajectories of the materials they study. This would coincide with the way geologists refer to the properties of the earth by referring to the body, a mode of understanding that goes back to the origins of the discipline, which suggests an epistemic intimacy between earth and body in geological knowledge. © 2020, Asociacion de Antropologos Iberoamericanos en Red.El Antropoceno —término acuñado recientemente para designar a la época geológica actual— se enmarca en la pregunta por el impacto de lo humano a escala planetaria. Dirigido al mismo tiempo a todos y a nadie, el Antropoceno pareciera interpelar a un humano global, imposible de hallar en ninguna parte. Dicha narrativa coincidiría con la tendencia general de la ciencia moderna en torno a un distanciamiento epistémico de la naturaleza. Esta narrativa entraría en tensión con el modo en que el conocimiento geológico se funda. Partiendo de trabajo etnográfico con geólogos involucrados en la extracción de caliza —ingrediente central en la producción de cemento, el aglutinante del concreto— este artículo reflexiona sobre el modo en que aquellos expertos en historia de la tierra son afectados por las trayectorias de los materiales que estudian. Contrario a la desafección que la imagen del Antropoceno comporta, este trabajo muestra cómo geólogos —al igual que los ingenieros y mineros con los que colaboran— tienden a resonar afectivamente con las trayectorias de los materiales que estudian. Esto coincidiría con el modo en que los geólogos se refieren a las propiedades de la tierra, haciendo referencia al cuerpo, lo cual se remontaría a los inicios de la disciplina, dando cuenta de una intimidad epistémica entre tierra y cuerpo en el conocimiento geológico

Strengthened insectivory in a temperate fragmented forest

Habitat fragmentation modifies ecological patterns and processes through changes in species richness and abundance. In the coastal Maulino forest, central Chile, both species richness and abundance of insectivorous birds increases in forest fragments compared to continuous forest. Through a field experiment, we examined larvae predation in fragmented forests. Higher richness and abundance of birds foraging at forest fragments translated into more insect larvae preyed upon in forest fragments than in continuous forest. The assessed level of insectivory in forest fragments agrees with lower herbivory levels in forest fragments. This pattern strongly suggests the strengthening of food interactions web in forest fragments of coastal Maulino forest