Social Structures and Natural Systems

Trapped between the caricatured causalities of biological determinism and the sinister abdications of sociological relativism, socio-ecological interdisciplinarity stagnates. It has lost sight of the ambition of a long-term program and no longer works to conduct applied research on the concrete prerequisites for reliable cooperation, despite an accumulation of emergencies. The difficulty lies in the general and prolonged abandonment of necessary procedures under the influence of hidden philosophical presumptions. In the end, ecology, sociology, history, economics, agronomy, etc. are seriously handicapped by the absence of a common epistemology of comparative practice, an absence maintained by the dominant epistemology itself. Social Structures and Natural Systems seeks to demonstrate, with regard to social anthropology and ecology, a scientific compatibility of research subject to methodological requirements that are deductible from the conditions of the existence of science itself. All of this boils down to one observation: this book will be a success if, and only if, it becomes a beginning.

Trapped between the caricatured causalities of biological determinism and the sinister abdications of sociological relativism, socio-ecological interdisciplinarity stagnates. It has lost sight of the ambition of a long-term program and no longer works to conduct applied research on the concrete prerequisites for reliable cooperation, despite an accumulation of emergencies.The difficulty lies in the general and prolonged abandonment of necessary procedures under the influence of hidden philosophical presumptions. In the end, ecology, sociology, history, economics, agronomy, etc. are seriously handicapped by the absence of a common epistemology of comparative practice, an absence maintained by the dominant epistemology itself.Social Structures and Natural Systems seeks to demonstrate, with regard to social anthropology and ecology, a scientific compatibility of research subject to methodological requirements that are deductible from the conditions of the existence of science itself. All of this boils down to one observation: this book will be a success if, and only if, it becomes a beginning.

Introduction viiChapter 1. Non-Negotiable Conditions for a Scientific Stereoscopy 11.1. Operating principles against metaphysical principles 21.1.1. Ventriloquist philosophy 31.1.2. Two materialisms and one idealism: the initial bet of science 81.1.3. Ontology: a catch-all concept and a bottomless pit 111.2. A "strong agenda" for interdisciplinarity? 171.2.1. Popperian demarcation, or exclusion decreed from the outside 171.2.2. Scientific self-management and the requirement of symmetry 201.2.3. Symmetry and reflexivity in the nature/culture couple 241.2.4. Two modes of interdisciplinarity 301.3. Materialism in the face of the ideal 341.3.1. The illusory sphere of the ideas 351.3.2. The three entries on human worlds 411.4. The line drawn on the side of science: frame of reference 451.4.1. The observation of the facts and the strangeness of mathematics 461.4.2. The permanent priority of the frame of reference 531.4.3. Scientific clarity and the impurity of scientists 581.5. "Reframed" comparison 62Chapter 2. Relations above All (and Before Any Cause) 692.1. The power of bonding: social relations and ecological interactions 712.2. The polarity of relationship: domestication between nature and culture 772.2.1. The asymmetry of domestication 772.2.2. Symmetry and reflexivity in domesticators 842.2.3. Original asymmetry and historical symmetries 912.3. Relations in a process: the "causes" for the Neolithic 942.4. Locks and openings 1062.4.1. Robert Cresswell's locks: an analysis tool to be imposed 1062.4.2. Palm wine and coffee: time is money 1092.5. The vintage and the expert 1132.5.1. Hierarchy takes time 1152.5.2. The curse of the Languedoc vineyard 1172.5.3. The oenologist, between technocracy and aesthetics 120Chapter 3. Uncertain Ensembles, Imperfect Cohesion and Disruptive Events 1293.1. Systems and structures: the search 1313.1.1. Empirical or autochthonous ensembles 1323.1.2. The structure and forgotten morphology 1353.1.3. Systems open to all winds 1393.1.4. Generalized structuralism, the subject and the event 1453.2. The undesirable and sterilized event 1523.2.1. Whitehead versus Braudel 1523.2.2. The rot-proof event at the source of culture 1603.3. Events and cohesion in an accelerated Neolithization 1653.4. The event: a referee for theories? 1713.5. The forgotten service of the fundamental in favor of the applied 175Chapter 4. The Spiral of Research: Centrifugal and Centripetal Approaches 1794.1. Ensembles, scales and frameworks: methodology versus methods 1814.1.1. The "enriched" scales 1814.1.2. Inclusions and overlaps among ensembles 1844.1.3. Edges, ecotones, borders and ruptures 1864.1.4. Complementarities and competitions 1914.2. Spiral research: from center to periphery, or the other way around? 1944.2.1. Centrifugal contrasts and centripetal understandings 1954.2.2. The construction of the ecological niche 2034.2.3. Constructions and mosaics 2074.3. Solidary comparison and interdisciplinary 213Conclusion 219References 225Index 241