How Forests Think

Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human

By: Eduardo Kohn

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Can forests think? Do dogs dream? In this astonishing book, Eduardo Kohn challenges the very foundations of anthropology, calling into question our central assumptions about what it means to be human - and thus distinct from all other life forms. Based on four years of fieldwork among the Runa of Ecuador's Upper Amazon, Kohn draws on his rich ethnography to explore how Amazonians interact with the many creatures that inhabit one of the world's most complex ecosystems.

Whether or not we recognize it, our anthropological tools hinge on those capacities that make us distinctly human. However, when we turn our ethnographic attention to how we relate to other kinds of beings, these tools (which have the effect of divorcing us from the rest of the world) break down. How Forests Think seizes on this breakdown as an opportunity. Avoiding reductionistic solutions, and without losing sight of how our lives and those of others are caught up in the moral webs we humans spin, this book skillfully fashions new kinds of conceptual tools from the strange and unexpected properties of the living world itself. In this groundbreaking work, Kohn takes anthropology in a new and exciting direction - one that offers a more capacious way to think about the world we share with other kinds of beings.

©2013 The Regents of the University of California (P)2017 Tantor

Mind blowing

I'm an anthropologist and this book really helped me to think about some of my own experiences in a different way. I highly recommend it.

very annoying wrong pronunciation of French names

very interesting book if you are into social sciences or semiotics. very productive interpreation of Peirce. a very challenging discourse about difference. however the book underestimates Saussurean seniotics and its developments.

the pronunciation of French last names is always wrong and is very annoying. unbeleavable

Mind blowing. Provocative. Timely

A must read for all who cares about how to save ourselves from ourselves. A radical rethinking of humanity as all the patterns of relationships that we maintain.

An Academic Reflection on An Animist Culture

Incredibly dense, technical, and informative. The author digs into both the spiritual and academic realities based in their experience with the Runa people, treating them with respect and recognizing the implications of understanding a more-than-human approach to anthropology and animism itself in a Western setting. He takes lessons learned directly from the Runa and applies them to our own understanding, creating a kind of dialogue between. I found it thoughtful, and an incredible work, despite many patches of dry anthropology theory and lengthy explanations for which the Runa themselves have both, in my understanding of the material he brings forward, more simple and complex ways of understanding and communicating.

Powerful insights. Quite mind altering!!!

I am very impressed by the insights in this book...the breadth and dimensionality of it would elude the superficial readers and picky reviewers. So very profound and multilayered.

Only a book for those who want to stretch their consciousness without drugs or inductions.
Dynamic and rich...

No more non author narrators

I’ve learned my lesson. Maybe ok for fiction, but this blandly cheery weather-report-like reading is absurd with this text—not his fault just a shame.

Fascinating Book, Great Narrator

This book is fascinating, thoroughly enjoyed it and gleaned much knowledge. The reader, Malcolm Hillgartner, is the best in the business.

Distracted by references

After about 30-min in, I’m done. The references to other people’s work, meant as parenthetical annotations to be glossed over by a more casual reader, are read verbatim. This makes the audible reading extremely choppy and hard to follow. I might pick up a hard copy but this audible version is a bust.

Apparently forests do not think

From the beginning, the book does the opposite of what it seeks. The work is the embodiment of anthropocentrism. It doesn’t even mention plants, fungi, Bactria, archaea, viruses or other interrelating forms. I suppose if you don’t got brains you ain’t thinking. And animals don’t neither crept those who sign proper like. The more chapters that passed the more deeply the hypocrisy of this book becomes. I hated it.

Very boring story line with unnecessary language

It is not worth spending the time to read it. Why use such an expensive level of language