becoming non-human
Interdisciplinary fields of plant and animal studies come into my horizon of extracultural becoming of man. The trans-phyletic (in the Guattarian sense of the term phylum) is one of the direction of exploration of the cultural frontiers. The non-cultural dimension accessible to a human individual may share some of those plant-like features of what Coccia defined as “cosmic contemplation” of complete, immersive being-in-the-world. Experiencing and developing a solidarity with plants may provide a non-cultural paradigm of existence. On the other hand, the commensality of the human and the remaining predatory species marks our participation in the digestive, visceral physiology.
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The primitive man transcends, through mask and ritual dance, the limitations of the human condition. But this act of transcending leads him not outside, but into the animal condition. In a sense, the animal becomes a transhumanistic aspiration of the primitive humanity. In rituals through which man symbolically becomes an animal, the meaning of trespassing the frontiers of humanity may consist in claiming certain animal qualities, such as speed, strength or resistance, but perhaps it also constitutes a first approach to the solution of a basic problem of man, who lacks a proper nature; the essential “manchanza del uomo a se stesso,” as Agamben calls it.
This essential lack remains deeply inscribed also in the monotheistic vision. The invention of the monotheism consists in the emergence of a new concept of divinity, defined by reduction and abstraction. The supreme god standing above the multiplicity of theriomorphic gods would possess no attribute in order to resume an infinity of attributes. As it is the only one, it needs no identification, no ascribed characteristics that used to define its polytheistic counterparts. The monotheistic divinity has no sex nor any other animal feature. It can be assumed that this concept of God radically driven away from any biological analogy precedes and shapes the concept of humanity defined by a radical exclusion from universality of life. The monotheistic divinity does not hunt, either. The commensality of man and animal can be no longer evoked as alibi or justification for the transgression of eating meat. On the contrary, the radical breaking of human-animal commensality leads to ritualistic elaboration of everything that is related to the physiological necessity of eating. From slaughtering to cooking and table manners, the rituals proliferate. |
essays in plant & animal studies
The Austringer of Grief. Re-storying an archaic hunting partnership in Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk
Synthesis, no 15/2022. e-ISSN 1791-5155. [In progress].
In 2014, Helen Macdonald published a bestselling non-fiction text, H is for Hawk. Building upon an inherited cultural practice of keeping and taming goshawks, she offered to the readers a compelling presentation of her personal journey of mourning after the death of her father. Macdonald “re-stories” an interspecies practice (the relation between the austringer, i.e. the keeper of goshawks, and the bird of prey) in such a way that it ceases to be instrumentalised primarily as a hunting technique. The manning of the hawk becomes a process of introspection and healing of the bereaved woman in the company of a non-human partner. In parallel to this experience, she reads the personal history of yet another traumatised austringer, the homosexual author T. H. White. This double line of experience counters and deconstructs the dominant male narration and introduces a maternal element in the relationship with the hawk. Finally, having reached a breaking point in her identification with the bird and its predatory instincts, the austringer recovers the balance of the wild and the tame.
In 2014, Helen Macdonald published a bestselling non-fiction text, H is for Hawk. Building upon an inherited cultural practice of keeping and taming goshawks, she offered to the readers a compelling presentation of her personal journey of mourning after the death of her father. Macdonald “re-stories” an interspecies practice (the relation between the austringer, i.e. the keeper of goshawks, and the bird of prey) in such a way that it ceases to be instrumentalised primarily as a hunting technique. The manning of the hawk becomes a process of introspection and healing of the bereaved woman in the company of a non-human partner. In parallel to this experience, she reads the personal history of yet another traumatised austringer, the homosexual author T. H. White. This double line of experience counters and deconstructs the dominant male narration and introduces a maternal element in the relationship with the hawk. Finally, having reached a breaking point in her identification with the bird and its predatory instincts, the austringer recovers the balance of the wild and the tame.
Non-cultural morphogenesis: plants
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Historia - Kultura - Globalizacja, no 26/2019, p. 111-120.
The essay is conceived as a presentation of the author's stance on the extra-cultural becoming of man, interwoven with the “metaphysics of mixture” recently proposed by Emanuele Coccia. Both insights coincide in the valorisation of the non-cultural paradigm of plant-like, pneumatic existence, as well as the notion of penetrability and interference between the organism and the world. Vegetable morphogenesis, that differs from human technique as a way of transforming matter, epitomises the cosmogonic immersion in which the organism creates its environment being one with it. Constant interpenetration of the self and the world, present in the primordial physiology of breathing, offers an access to the emergent, post-cultural stage of man, preserving and perpetuating his/her liminal position. 
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“A falconry lesson. The experience of introducing falconry into a transdisciplinary curriculum”, Falconry – its influence on biodiversity and cultural heritage in Poland and Europe, Urszula Szymak and Przemysław Sianko (eds.), Białystok, Muzeum Podlaskie, 2016, p. 277-287. ISBN 978-83-87026-59-2
Polish version (on electronic support accompanying the printed volume): “Lekcja sokolnictwa. Doświadczenie wprowadzenia sokolnictwa do transdyscyplinarnego programu studiów”, Sokolnictwo – wpływ na bioróżnorodność i dziedzictwo kulturowe w Polsce i w Europie, Urszula Szymak and Przemysław Sianko (eds.), Białystok, Muzeum Podlaskie, 2016, p. 281-291. The article deals with problems and open questions concerning the inscription of the falconry lore in the academic institution, teaching practice and production of knowledge, referred mainly to the emergent transdisciplinary field of anthropozoology (human/animal studies). It presents the experimental falconry seminar realized at the College of Liberal Arts, University of Warsaw, commenting on its concept, outcomes, the response of the academic public, as well as the perspectives and obstacles on the way toward the permanent presence of falconry at the university.
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"Na uczcie mięsożerców. O transhumanistycznym potencjale relacji człowieka i ptaka" ["Meat-eaters' banquet. On trans-humanistic potential in the relationship of man and bird"], Jednak Książki, nr 2/2014, p. 25-37. ISSN 2353-4699
The main topic of this essay, Mediterranean traditions of falconry (highly valued both by the Christians and the Muslims), becomes a key to reconsider the awkward problem of man as a meat-eater, problem that opens – according to Agamben's suggestion – a double perspective of pre-humanity and post-humanity. The predatory nature of man brings him close to other predatory species, such as falcons and hawks. On the other hand, eating meat becomes object of manifold restrictions inside the boundaries of the cultured condition of man. While the religious orthodoxies establish qualitative and temporal restrictions on meat consumption (such as categories of kosher, halal, etc., as well as the required periods of fasting), the mystics seek the companionship of a falcon, possibly not only as a paradigm of ascension towards the heavens, but also of unstoppable, uncontrolled voracity that may lead beyond the cultured boundaries and guide the man longing for extra-cultural spontaneity, so highly prized in Zen, but also in Sufism. Falcon, that can be tamed, but not completely domesticated, remains a creature at the frontier between culture and nature, transcending both zones. At the same time it may become a spiritual companion guiding the man in his quest for the divine. This is why the relationship between man and bird may hide a trans-humanistic potential that still remains unexplored.
The main topic of this essay, Mediterranean traditions of falconry (highly valued both by the Christians and the Muslims), becomes a key to reconsider the awkward problem of man as a meat-eater, problem that opens – according to Agamben's suggestion – a double perspective of pre-humanity and post-humanity. The predatory nature of man brings him close to other predatory species, such as falcons and hawks. On the other hand, eating meat becomes object of manifold restrictions inside the boundaries of the cultured condition of man. While the religious orthodoxies establish qualitative and temporal restrictions on meat consumption (such as categories of kosher, halal, etc., as well as the required periods of fasting), the mystics seek the companionship of a falcon, possibly not only as a paradigm of ascension towards the heavens, but also of unstoppable, uncontrolled voracity that may lead beyond the cultured boundaries and guide the man longing for extra-cultural spontaneity, so highly prized in Zen, but also in Sufism. Falcon, that can be tamed, but not completely domesticated, remains a creature at the frontier between culture and nature, transcending both zones. At the same time it may become a spiritual companion guiding the man in his quest for the divine. This is why the relationship between man and bird may hide a trans-humanistic potential that still remains unexplored.
| na_uczcie_miesozercow.pdf |
"Falconry as Intangible Heritage: A Universe of Values", International Journal of Falconry, Summer 2012, pp. 38-43. ISSN 2080-6779
| falconry_as_intangible_heritage.pdf |
“Mediterranean Falconry as a Cross-Cultural Bridge: Christian – Muslim Hunting Encounters”, Birthday Beasts’ Book. Where Human Roads Cross Animal Trails, Cultural Studies in Honour of Jerzy Axer, Katarzyna Marciniak (ed.), Warsaw, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies “Artes Liberales”, 2011, p. 161-170. ISBN 978-83-928972-9-3
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Included in the Falconry Heritage Trust virtual archive: http://www.falconryheritage.org/viewItem.php?id=2054
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| mediterranean_falconry.pdf |
