Reading Tim Ingold

Synopsis

This reading course is devoted to the works of British anthropologist Tim Ingold (Aberdeen). Like few others, Ingold has shaped many contemporary debates in anthropology, ranging from his critique of concepts such as space, network, and materiality to his contributions to what is now known as the ontological turn. The aim of this reading course is to get a deeper understanding of Ingold's intellectual project, its strands and their entanglements.

We begin with an Ingold's early work on hunters and pastoralists in the arctic (Ingold 1996; Ingold 1980) and the perception of nature and the environment (Ingold 1993; Ingold 1996). We engage with his take on materials and materiality (Ingold 2010; Ingold 2007a) and join him on pedestrian excursions (Ingold 2004; Ingold 2007b; Ingold 2008). We discuss his views on skill and the creativity of practice, and the linearity of writing (Ingold 2000; Ingold 2006a, Ingold (2007b)). We follow his thoughts on "being alive" (Ingold 2006b; Ingold 2011), from anthropological reflections on evolution (Ingold 1986) to the idea of biosocial becomings (Ingold and Palsson 2013) and seek to understand what all of this means for anthropology as a discipline (Ingold 2014).

The course will be taught in English; essays can be written in English or German.

Programme

Ways of Living

1. 13 October: Introduction; if you find time, please read this interview: Luis Fernando & Angosto Ferrandez. 2013. “Tim Ingold on Culture, Biology and the Anthropological Task.” Revista de Antropología Iberoamericana 8 (3): 285–302.

Nature, Environment

1. 20 October: “Prologue” in Hunters, pastoralists, and ranchers: Reindeer economies and their transformations. Cambridge: University Press Cambridge (1980).
2. 27 October: “Hunting and gathering as ways of perceiving the environment”, chapter 3 of The Perception of the Environment. Essays in Livehood, Dwelling and Skill, London: Routledge (2010).

Dwelling, wayfaring

1. 3 November: “Building, dwelling, living: How animals and people make themselves at home in the world”, chapter 10 of The Perception of the Environment. Essays in Livehood, Dwelling and Skill, London: Routledge (2010)
2. 10 November: “Against Space: Place, Movement, Knowledge.” in Peter W Kirby. Boundless Worlds: An Anthropological Approach to Movement. Oxford: Berghahn (2008).

Skill

1. 17 November: “Walking the Plank: Meditations on a Process of Skill.” In Defining Technological Literacy: Towards an Epistemological Framework, edited by John R. Dakers, 65–80. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2006).
2. 24 November: Session on skill with Marc Higgin, who is doing a PhD with Tim Ingold in Aberdeen.

Materials

1. 1 December: “Materials against Materiality.” Archaeological Dialogues (2007) 14/01: 1–16.
2. 8 December: “Bringing Things to Life: Creative Entanglements in a World of Materials.” ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, NCRM Working Paper Series (2010)

Biosocial becomings, on Being Alive

1. 15 December: “Prospect” in Biosocial becomings: integrating social and biological anthropology. Edited by Tim Ingold and Gisli Palsson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2013).
2. 22 December: “Rethinking the Animate, Re-Animating Thought.” Ethnos 71/1 (2006): 9–20.
3. 12 January: “When ANT meets SPIDER: social theory for arthropods” in Being alive. Essays on movement, knowledge and description. London: Routledge (2011).

Widen Anthropology

1. 19 January: “Anthropology comes to Life – Prologue” in Being alive. Essays on movement, knowledge and description. London: Routledge (2011).
2. 10 November: Lines. A Brief History. London & New York: Routledge (2007).

Coda

1. 2 February: Conclusion

References

Ingold, Tim. 1980. Hunters, pastoralists, and ranchers: Reindeer economies and their transformations. Cambridge University Press Cambridge.

———. 1986. Evolution and social life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

———. 1993. “Globes and spheres: The Topology of Environmentalism.” In Environmentalism: The View from Anthropology, edited by Kay Milton, 31–42. London: Routledge.

———. 1996. “Hunting and gathering as ways of perceiving the environment.”

———. 2000. The Perception of the Environment. Essays in Livehood, Dwelling and Skill. London & New York: Routledge.

———. 2004. “Culture on the Ground The World Perceived Through the Feet.” Journal of Material Culture 9 (3). Sage Publications: 315–40.

———. 2006a. “Walking the Plank : Meditations on a process of skill.” In Defining Technological Literacy: Towards an Epistemological Framework, edited by John R. Dakers, 65–80. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

———. 2006b. “Rethinking the animate, re-animating thought.” Ethnos 71 (1). Routledge: 9–20.

———. 2007a. “Materials against materiality.” Archaeological Dialogues 14 (01). Cambridge University Press: 1–16.

———. 2007b. Lines. A Brief History. London & New York: Routledge.

———. 2008. “Against Space: Place, Movement, Knowledge.” Edited by Peter W Kirby. Boundless Worlds: An Anthropological Approach to Movement. Oxford: Berghahn.

———. 2010. “Bringing things to life: Creative entanglements in a world of materials.” ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, NCRM Working Paper Series, 1–15. http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/morgancentre/realities/wps/15-2010-07-realities-bringing-things-to-life.pdf.

———. 2011. Being alive. Essays on movement, knowledge and description. London; New York: Routledge.

———. 2014. “That’s enough about ethnography!” HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 4 (1): 383–95.

Ingold, Tim, and Gisli Palsson. 2013. Biosocial becomings : integrating social and biological anthropology. Edited by Tim Ingold and Gisli Palsson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.