Humans, among Other Classical Animals (Postclassical Interventions)

By: Ashley Clements

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Synopsis: We are living in a moment of environmental and existential crisis that demands a response. Why then study Classics now? From the European assimilation and destruction of the New World to our present environmental destruction of our shared world, Humans, among Other Classical Animals explores in encounters an answer by demonstrating how the Classics have been implicated in the structures of thought that have ultimately led us to our present historical moment. Telling the story of anthropology's Classical entanglements from its inception to its growth to critical self-awareness, it demonstrates that Classical ideas have played a crucial -and often deleterious- role in the Western placing of the human and in the discipline that claimed the study of humanity as its own. Responses to our present crisis, it argues, should therefore include as a prerequisite, considering the origins and implications of these Classical foundations because only by so doing can we attain the full self-awareness necessary to think beyond them and consider the alternatives we now need. Postclassical Interventions aims to reorient the meaning of antiquity across and beyond the humanities. Building on the success of Classical Presences, this complementary series features shorter-length monographs designed to provoke debate about the current and future potential of Classical Reception through fresh, bold, and critical thinking.