Background
Descola, Philippe was born on June 19, 1949 in Paris. Son of Jean Descola and Charlotte Grisel.
Descola, Philippe was born on June 19, 1949 in Paris. Son of Jean Descola and Charlotte Grisel.
D in Anthropology, Ecole Pratique Des Hautes Etudes, Paris, 1983.
Descola started with an interest in philosophy and later became a student of Claude Lévi-Strauss. His ethnographic studies in the Amazon region of Ecuador began in 1976 and was funded by National Center for Scientific Research. He lived with the Achuar from 1976 to 1978. His reputation largely arises from these studies.
As a professor, he was invited several times in the University of São Paulo, Beijing, Chicago, Montreal, London School of Economics, Cambridge, Saint St. Petersburg, Buenos Aires, Gothenburg, Uppsala and Leuven.
He has given lectures in over forty universities and academic institutions abroad, including the Beatrice Blackwood Lecture at Oxford, the George Lurcy Lecture at Chicago, the Munro Lecture at Edinburgh, the Radcliffe-Brown Lecture at the British Academy, the Clifford Geertz Memorial Lecture at Princeton, the Jensen Lecture at Frankfurt and the Victor Goldschmidt Lecture at Heidelberg. He has chaired the Société des Américanistes since 2002 and the scientific committee of the Fondation Fyssen from 2001 to 2009, as well as holding memberships in many other scientific committees.
Descola is currently chair of anthropology at the Collège de France. 1996: National Center for Scientific Research Silver medal 2010: Elected as corresponding fellow of the British Academy 2010: Officer in the French Legion of Honor 2011: Édouard Bonnefous Prize from Academy of Moral and Political Sciences 2012: National Center for Scientific Research Gold Medal 2014: International Cosmos Prize.
Member of Societe Des Americanistes (president 2002), European Association Of Social Anthropologists (member of board 1989-1990).
Married Anne Christine Taylor, June 26, 1976. Children: Leonore, Emmanuel.