The New Science of the Enchanted Universe: An Anthropology of Most of Humanity
Marshall Sahlins
Apr 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by BJ Harrison
headphones
Audiobook
8 hr 26 min
Unabridged
family_home
Eligible
info
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
Want a 53 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline.
Add
About this audiobook
From the perspective of Western modernity, humanity inhabits a disenchanted cosmos. Gods, spirits, and ancestors have left us for a transcendent beyond. Yet the vast majority of cultures throughout human history treat spirits as very real persons, members of a cosmic society who interact with humans and control their fate. In most cultures, even today, people are but a small part of an enchanted universe misconstrued by the transcendent categories of "religion" and the "supernatural." The New Science of the Enchanted Universe shows how anthropologists and other social scientists must rethink these cultures of immanence and study them by their own lights. In this, his last, revelatory book, Marshall Sahlins announces a new method and sets an exciting agenda for the field. He takes listeners around the world. In the process, Sahlins sheds new light on classical and contemporary ethnographies that describe these cultures of immanence and reveals how even the apparently mundane, all-too-human spheres of "economics" and "politics" emerge as people negotiate with, and ultimately usurp, the powers of the gods. The New Science of the Enchanted Universe offers a road map for a new practice of anthropology that takes seriously the enchanted universe and its transformations from ancient Mesopotamia to contemporary America.
About the author
Marshall Sahlins (1930-2021) was the Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Chicago and the author of many books, including Stone Age Economics and Culture and Practical Reason.
Since iTunes named his as one of the top podcasts of 2007, BJ Harrison has continued to wow audiences. With more than 750 audiobooks to his credit, BJ has an astounding array of character voices, dialects, and accents at his fingertips, coupled with an impressive depth of interpretation.
Rate this audiobook
Tell us what you think.
Listening information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
