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Our Emotional Makeup
Broken hearts, edgy nerves, tightened throats—our emotions grab and take hold of us. But if our emotions appear obvious to us, are they necessarily real or universal? This, of course, is what researchers in physiology and psychology assert, but they will ultimately be disappointed.
Vinciane Despret sets out in this book to show how some of our emotions, precisely those we thought were a natural part of our make-up, do not exist unless they have been inscribed in our subjectivity through the mediation of culture.
Emotions do not exist per se, but only within relations to others. Anthropologists and ethnologists often return from distant regions and remote islands with emotions unknown to their peers at home, and which can only be expressed in the tribal tongue they have learned. Following such discoveries, one should not be surprised to find that anger does not exist among the Uktus, and the Ikfalus have to teach fear to their children.
One only has to consider the emotions of other cultures and traditions to recognize that they are human productions with wide and significant variations, like good manners. Our emotions, finally, represent the way that we see the world and try to make it our own.
Vinciane Despret sets out in this book to show how some of our emotions, precisely those we thought were a natural part of our make-up, do not exist unless they have been inscribed in our subjectivity through the mediation of culture.
Emotions do not exist per se, but only within relations to others. Anthropologists and ethnologists often return from distant regions and remote islands with emotions unknown to their peers at home, and which can only be expressed in the tribal tongue they have learned. Following such discoveries, one should not be surprised to find that anger does not exist among the Uktus, and the Ikfalus have to teach fear to their children.
One only has to consider the emotions of other cultures and traditions to recognize that they are human productions with wide and significant variations, like good manners. Our emotions, finally, represent the way that we see the world and try to make it our own.
326 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2004
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110 people want to read
About the author
Vinciane Despret
60 books86 followersVinciane Despret is a Belgian philosopher of science, associate professor, at the University of Liège, Belgium.
First graduated in philosophy, she studied psychology and graduated in 1991. She is most known for having provided a reflexive account on ethologists, observing babblers in the Negev desert and the way they would interpret those birds' complex dance moves.
She is considered to be a foundational thinker in what has now become the field of animal studies. More generally, at the heart of her work lies the question of the relationship between observers and the observed during the conduct of scientific research.
Despret affiliates herself to such critical thinkers in philosophy and anthropology of science as Isabelle Stengers, Donna Haraway and Bruno Latour. She undertakes a critical understanding of how science is fabricated, following scientists doing fieldwork and the way they actively create links and specific relationships to their objects of study.
First graduated in philosophy, she studied psychology and graduated in 1991. She is most known for having provided a reflexive account on ethologists, observing babblers in the Negev desert and the way they would interpret those birds' complex dance moves.
She is considered to be a foundational thinker in what has now become the field of animal studies. More generally, at the heart of her work lies the question of the relationship between observers and the observed during the conduct of scientific research.
Despret affiliates herself to such critical thinkers in philosophy and anthropology of science as Isabelle Stengers, Donna Haraway and Bruno Latour. She undertakes a critical understanding of how science is fabricated, following scientists doing fieldwork and the way they actively create links and specific relationships to their objects of study.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 20, 2016
Un libro de una belleza extraordinaria. En él Despret presenta una investigación -lúcida, erudita y plena de humor- sobre las emociones y lo que pueden decir de nosotros, naturalezas (si, en plural) y culturas. Pero sobre todo, es un libro que se la juega por una valiente exploración de las posibilidades y límites que nuestras prácticas de investigación, estudio, e intervención ponen en juego. Particularmente impresionante es el capítulo sobre las emociones en el trabajo de William James, y el rescate de la habilidad del autor estadounidense para provocar y desorientar a sus lectores, negándose a toda simplificación apresurada de la relación entre emociones, cuerpos y mundo. A partir de ello Despret hace un convincente llamado a cultivar prácticas que permitan una apertura creativa, rigurosa y crítica a la hora de estudiar las emociones -u otros "objetos"-, sin negar la indeterminación y complejidad que hacen posible una relación más compleja y articulada con nosotros mismos y el mundo.
January 17, 2025
Despret es de esas autoras que te emociona, que te abre un mundo de posibilidades, que te guía abiertamente a la transformación. Este libro trastoca no solo las emociones, sino las responsabilidades, las políticas, las realidades, y las propias existencias en la labor de las ciencias sociales. Que manera tan emocionante de dejarse llenar y convertirse con este libro.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews