Humans in the living world
Awareness of the threat weighing on ecological and social balances leads humans to wonder about the means of ensuring a better coexistence with the living world. These interactions are organized through conceptions of life, material cultures and institutions (religious, political, economic, legal, etc.).
An anthropological fact
In addition to the life sciences necessary for a better understanding of environments, anthropology is essential for reflecting on the diversity of techniques and forms of social organization invented by humans to live on our planet.
What life does to humans
In this context, the “Anthropology of Life” team seeks to understand what life does to humans and what humans do to life.
How are human societies built around interactions with vital processes (birth, growth, reproduction, illness or health, aging, death), which manifest themselves in human bodies or in animals, plants, microorganisms ?
What humans do to life
How do human societies develop knowledge about life and technical knowledge to exercise an action on organisms and ecological systems? What are the forms of social organization associated with practices such as animal husbandry, agriculture, medicine or biotechnology?
Life in society
The anthropology of life studies, from a comparative perspective, the techniques that humans develop to interact with living beings and natural environments. A specific reflection is devoted to the role of artefacts and images in these interactions.
Anthropological comparison
We seek to establish the links between conceptions of life and forms of social organization, by observing a wide range of activities: domestication of living things, hunting, fishing, ritual techniques, biomedicine, biobanks, biomimicry, bioart, robotics, life modeling.