Pépinière interdisciplinaire CNRS-PSL, « Domestication et fabrication du vivant », Centre de philosophie contemporaine de la Sorbonne, Laboratoire d’anthropologie sociale

Organization

• Perig Pitrou (CNRS-LAS)
• Fabien Provost (Paris West University)

Registration

Free access, mandatory registration: http://goo.gl/forms/HHzgWqssy0

Argument

Aside from the biological processes to which it is subjected from birth to death, human existence is characterized by the permanent effort all individuals and groups make to influence and control these processes, in order to live together. Whether occurring during a rite of passage or whether part of the interactions of everyday life, this construction invites us to question the various manners forms are made – be them “Life Forms” or “Forms of Life” – by carefully looking at the diversity of processes through which norms and rules become established. By considering life under the angle of such relational systems, the purpose is not so much to articulate the social and the biological but to understand how the moral values thanks to which a life can be judged as good, can be created and transmitted. The stake is then to emphasize the principles and agreements thanks to which a common world, a “We”, can emerge within societies and between them, including when connections dissolve and when certain phenomena occur, which are likely to endanger the existence of people and institutions. We will also wonder to what extent death and destruction, beyond their negativity, can reinforce or stimulate life for both individuals and human groups.

Programme

Thursday 26 May 2016,

5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Amphithéâtre Lévi-Strauss

52, rue du Cardinal Lemoine, Paris 5^e

Presentation of the volume Living and Dying in the Contemporary World (University of California Press) by editors Veena Das (John Hopkins University), Clara Han (John Hopkins University)

With commentaries by Perig Pitrou (CNRS), Fabien Provost (Paris West University) and Anthony Stavrianakis (CERMES3).

The presentation will be followed by a convivial drink.

Taking a novel approach to the contradictory impulses of violence and care, illness and healing, this book radically shifts the way we think of the interrelations of institutions and experiences in a globalizing world. Living and Dying in the Contemporary World is not just another reader in medical anthropology but a true tour de force—a deep exploration of all that makes life unbearable and yet livable through the labor of ordinary people.

This book comprises forty-four chapters by scholars whose ethnographic and historical work is conducted around the globe, including South Asia, East Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. Bringing together the work of established scholars with the vibrant voices of younger scholars, Living and Dying in the Contemporary World will appeal to anthropologists, sociologists, health scientists, scholars of religion, and all who are curious about how to relate to the rapidly changing institutions and experiences in an ever more connected world.

Vendredi 27 mai 2016

Amphithéâtre PSL

62bis, rue Gay Lussac

10h00-16h00

Morning

Forms, norms, rules (10-13h)

• Perig Pitrou (CNRS – LAS), Life Form and Form of Life
• Florent Coste (École Française de Rome), Is Culture an Observance ? Life, Forms and Norms in some Medieval Monastic Rules
• Fabien Provost (Paris West University), Morality and the Interpretation of Rules in Forensic Medicine. The Case of India
• Anthony Stavrianakis (CNRS – CERMES3), Thinking the Obvious: Determination & Indetermination in Assisted Voluntary Dying

1 p.m. Buffet (on registration)

Afternoon

On Rules and the Possibility to Live Together (14h00-16h00)

A collective discussion with Veena Das (John Hopkins University) and Sandra Laugier (University Paris I Panthéon – Sorbonne)

Informations

• perig.pitrou@college-de-france.fr
• Fabien.provost@college-de-france.fr