Philippe Descola

Philippe Descola (born 1949) is a French anthropologist. He was a professor of anthropology at the Collège de France, where he is emeritus. A student of Claude Lévi-Strauss, he succeeded him at the institution. In his work, Descola developed a comparative anthropology examining the relationship between nature and culture. His best-known works include Beyond Nature and Culture and The Forms of the Visible: An Anthropology of Images, which received the Prix Fondation Martine Aublet in 2021. His work has received, among other distinctions, a medal from France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS); he is also a Knight of the Légion d’honneur.