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Bodies, Gods and Other Imponderables: Cross-Cultural Metalogues

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Bodies, Gods and Other Imponderables

Cross-Cultural Metalogues

Geoffrey Lloyd and Aparecida Vilaça

144 pages, bibliog., index

ISBN  978-1-80758-041-4 $120.00/£92.00 / Hb / Not Yet Published (October 2026)

eISBN 978-1-80758-042-1 eBook Not Yet Published


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Reviews

“This dialogue between a classical philosopher and an Amazonian anthropologist is remarkable. In exploring and contrasting ancient Greek philosophical and indigenous Amazonian conceptions of themselves and their worlds, it addresses fundamental questions about human perception and understanding of bodies and souls, dreams and myths, ways of life and death.” • Nicholas Jardine, University of Cambridge

“I have the highest opinion of this work. It takes a common problem of anthropologists and historians alike, namely radical otherness, and subjects it to a rigorous examination in terms of specific themes in ancient and non-Western systems of knowledge and knowing. It takes us far beyond “psychic unity” to a more layered and reflective exposition about the human experience.” • Francesca Rochberg, University of California

Description

Through a dialogue between a philosopher and an anthropologist, one a specialist in ancient Greek and Chinese thought, the other in Amazonian Indigenous peoples, Geoffrey Lloyd and Aparecida Vilaça revise our understanding of beliefs and behaviours considered counter-intuitive in the Western world. These include ideas about the body and its antitheses, dreams, sickness, gods and the narratives and myths which are used to untangle these concepts. What is distinctive about the approach adopted here is that it poses radical questions about the nature of the problems themselves. This turns the study into a resource for the revision of many of our own current presuppositions.

Geoffrey Lloyd is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. He specialises in classical philosophy, with a particular interest in the comparative study of ancient Greek and Chinese philosophical systems. Among his most notable publications are Ancient Worlds, Modern Reflections (2004), Being, Humanity, and Understanding (2012) and Expanding Horizons in the History of Science (2021).

Aparecida Vilaça is a Professor of Social Anthropology at Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro. She specialises in Indigenous Amazonian Worlds, with forty years of fieldwork experience among the Wari of Southwestern Amazonia. Her publications include Strange Enemies. Indigenous Agency and Scenes of Encounter in Amazonia (Duke, 2010), Praying and Preying. Christianity in Indigenous Amazonia (California, 2016) andPaletó and Me. Memories of My Indigenous Father (Stanford, 2021).

Subject: Anthropology (General)Sociology


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