Dossier 52th

In this dossier of the Sarance journal of the  Instituto Otavaleño de Antropología, we aim to address new philosophical and epistemological perspectives, analytical methodologies, and groundbreaking research that allow us to understand, from the realms of social studies and humanities, the complex interaction between the human species, other species, and the planet we cohabit.

Social sciences, since their origins, have been responsible for observing, analyzing, and understanding the human being, their organization forms, their exchange logic, and the conceptual, practical, and material creations that have been necessary for that intra-species relationship.

However, the relationship with other species and with the planet has constructed an idea of nature where these social, cultural, and historical «events» take place, and it serves as «a resource for human moral intentionality» (Lowenhaupt Tsing, A., 2017), allowing us to dominate and tame it.

On the other hand, the emergence Anthropocene concept redefines the meaning of human action and temporal scales, connecting life history with humanity history. There’s also a shift in the present sense (Chakrabarty, 2009) altered by the climate emergency, which blurs the continuity of past-present-future.

For these reasons, we seek to raise questions in this dossier that allow us to go beyond nature as an environmental category but also question the human position as the center, observer, autonomous, and disconnected from the rest of the species and the planet. Furthermore, we aim to observe the effects of our actions on the planet and the responsibility of different societies in this impact.