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48 | 2023
Faire et être avec les éléments

How to Live with the Elements. Being, Doing, Making
Edited by Céline Rosselin-Bareille
Faire et être  avec les éléments
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ISBN 979-10-351-0906-6

“ How to Live with the Elements. Being, Doing, Making.” This 48th issue of Socio-anthropologie questions the elements through bodies, tools and techniques. They act as a starting point rather than categories in a system, without any pre-set number (which may differ depending on the culture), variation, intensity or combination. The goal here is to shed light on various behaviours activitiesmay exhibit in relation with elements and environments, without reducing these behaviours to some clichés or representations. How does alchemy transform both matter and the alchemist himself? What do geobiologists use to “vibe” with the elements? How does a blacksmith control the temperature in his smithy? From breathing to air conditioning, can humanity truly control air? Should we always fight fire or learn how to dance with it? How does one build a life on clay-rich soil? Which bodies and techniques does one use to swim, sail or manage a river? How do you express the air’s invisibility, the feeling of being one with the elements or the flimsiness of the barrier between bodies, techniques and elements? This issue explores these questions to better understand the underlying social, political, historical and anthropological aspects at stake in our relationship to elemental matter.

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