How Forests Think Towards An Anthropology Beyond The...

How Forests Think: Towards An Anthropology Beyond the Human by Eduardo Kohn and Pandora’s Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies by Bruno Latour have an interesting dichotomy between what is considered alive (referred to by Kohn as a â€Å"self† and an â€Å"actant† for Latour), and what is not. It is important to note that Latour did not specifically refer to actants as being alive but they have agency, and this term is used in a similar manner to Kohn’s concept of selves. Through this essay, I will review both books and each author’s understanding of the concept of life. For Kohn, the boundaries of what is considered alive are limited to humans, animals, and organic matter. However, for Latour, we see a different, more developed understanding of the concept of life that incorporates essentially everything. By way of overview, Kohn’s How Forests Think: Towards An Anthropology Beyond the Human is an attempt to move beyond the limited cultural lens of the ethnographer (the outsider), in which one could only describe the Runa’s understanding from afar while struggling to be among the Runa people. This piece is not just an ethnographic description of the Runa, which can oftentimes be ingenuous in nature, but an approach that allows the reader to see this group of people as Kohn has come to see them. However, throughout the book Kohn tends to fluctuate in his tone between acting as being an insider and describing this group as an ethnographer. Most importantly, from this