The end of the world is a seemingly interminable topic Ð at least, of course, until it happens. Environmental catastrophe and planetary apocalypse are subjects of enduring fascination and, as ethnographic studies show, human cultures have approached them in very different ways. Indeed, in the face of the growing perception of the dire effects of global warming, some of these visions have been given a new lease on life. Information and analyses concerning the human causes and the catastrophic consequences of the planetary crisis have been accumulating at an ever-increasing rate, mobilising popular opinion as well as academic reflection.

In this book, philosopher Déborah Danowski and anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro offer a bold overview and interpretation of these current discourses on the end of the world, reading them as thought experiments on the decline of the Wests anthropological adventure Ð that is, as attempts, though not necessarily intentional ones, at inventing a mythology that is adequate to the present. This work has important implications for the future development of ecological practices and it will appeal to a broad audience interested in contemporary anthropology, philosophy, and environmentalism.

Deborah Danowski is Professor of Philosophy at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.Eduardo Viveiros de Castro is Professor of Anthropology at the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Eduardo Viveiros de Castro is a Brazilian anthropologist and professor at the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.Peter Skafish is Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow in the Anthropology Department at McGill University.

Foreword byBruno Latour vii

Prefatory note x

Acknowledgments xiii

1 What rough beast ... 1

2 ... Its hour come round at last ... 8

3 ... Slouches toward bethlehem to be born? 23

4 The outside without thought, or the death of the other 28

5 Alone at last 41

6 A world of people 61

7 Humans and terrans in the Gaia War 79

Conclusion: World on the brink 109

Notes 124

Bibliography 152

Index 169