La Nature as intertwining. Materials, lines and environment in the thought of Tim Ingold

Abstract

This reflection aims to explore the treatments of anthropologist Tim Ingold around the concept of environment. The objective will be to give off from them a contribution towards a non-anthropocentric conception of the notion of nature. We will classify the author's proposals into two major theories that will structure the different sections of the work: on the one hand his "theory of materials", and on the other, his "theory of lines". In the first, we will analyze the bases that make up his conception of the environment based on the contrast between materiality vs. materials. In the second part we will analyze its so-called linealogy from three figures: knote, ground and air. From the conjunction of both theories a renewed concept of nature is derived that harmonizes with the coordinates of the new contemporary materialisms and posthumanisms. Our hypothesis is that an understanding of nature in interstitial terms is revealed in the anthropologist's proposals. More specifically, the accent is no longer placed on the relationship between a human spectator and nature as setting, but on the tension between environment and experience, both spheres conceived as mutually conforming.