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List of Clips
| Title |
Description |
Length |
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 Spiritual complementarity between the city (domestic) and the mountains (wild) in China and Japan. |
 In this excerpt, Philippe Descola compares the notions of the wild and domestic in China and Japan. In both countries, the central opposition is the one between cities and mountains. In ancient China, mountains incarnate the land of exile. Furthermore, according to Berg, the beautification of the mountains in Chinese landscape painting may be seen as a spiritual value that unfolds as a parallel to the plains via agriculture. However, the city in the Chinese world is not separated from the suburb since the location of the city and the layout of houses are dictated by space physiology: Fengshui. Even erecting buildings in Hong Kong presupposes a certain space technique. If the city is well located, well built, and well governed then it is in phase with the world. In Japan, mountains are also seen as a stark contrast to the plain regions. The distinction between the yama - mountains - and the sato - inhabited lieu - points less to a mutual exclusion than a seasonal alternation, a sort of spiritual complementarity of the same type as in China. In Japan, mountains represent a spiritual place, which explains the fact that Buddhist monasteries are located in the mountains. |
 00:16:03 |
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 Jangala, a location carrying promises of the Indian farming civilization. |
 The main signification of “Jangala†- from “Jango†and “Jungle†- is a deserted or a long abandoned land. It also designates arid lands, meaning the total opposite of what jungle means to us. Jangala is opposed to paludal lands - anupa - which represent the hydrophilic vegetation. This contrast between Jangala and anupa draws a strong polarity in cosmology in the medical doctrines, especially in ayuverdic massage and the taxonomy of plants and animals. The contrast between Jangala and Anupa takes the form of a sort of complex dialogue based on the initial opposition: paludal lands - domains of barbarians / arid lands - lands claimed by Arians. That is what makes Jangala a desert space but still available, a place deprived of men but carrying the values and promises of the Indian farming civilization. |
 00:06:30 |
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 Europe and its Roman heritage |
 In many regions of the world, the contrasting perception of beings and places does not coincide with the significations and values that have been progressively anchored in the West of the wild and the domestic. As a matter of fact, these two notions are mutually exclusive. But they constitute complementary opposition. In Europe, the wild is represented by the silva - a large European forest that the European colonization is going to tame little by little. The silva is opposed to the domus - house which etymology designates as a social living area. |
 00:08:52 |
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 Blurred frontiers between cultivated and uncultivated zones. |
 Philippe Descola explains that the opposition between the wild and the domestic has been conditioned through time by land settlement and diet. Even in Europe, the partitioning line between wild/domestic has not clearly been demarcated. In the German system, the transition is very gradual between deep forest and house. This line clearly differentiates the barbarian farming system (German) from the Roman one which separated the ager from the saltus. However, during the Middle Ages, the fusion of the Roman and German civilizations generated more intensive use of the lands and woods - game and olive, for example. That lessened the barriers between the cultivated and uncultivated zones. |
 00:05:05 |
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The Wild and the Domestic
