For this installment of In the Journals, here is a quick orientation to, and selection from, two French journals that could interest readers of Somatosphere:
Terrain:
Created by the French Ministry of Culture in 1983, the journal Terrain is dedicated to contemporary anthropological inquiry in its broadest sense. Drawing on fieldwork, ethnography, as well as an openness to, and interest in, other human and social sciences, Terrain combines a concern for long-standing and emerging anthropological questions with a distinctive aesthetic sensibility. Each thematic issue is the result of a collaboration between the journal and a set of artists. It is a biannual journal published by the “Terrain Association” (in print and online versions), which also offers open-access online-only rubrics, as well as a popular blog “Carnets de Terrain,” which combined together produce a vast digital ecology for anthropological reflection and original research. Anglophone authors are encouraged to get in touch as it publishes in English as well. Recent issues have been on the themes of Madness, Complicities, Savage Capitalism and forthcoming issues are on an AI Bestiary and an issue dedicated to Animal Worship.
Recently translated into English is the introduction to the special issue from 2023 on Savage Capitalism, and the introduction to Sublime Bureaucracy from 2021.
Techniques et Cultures
Founded in the 1970s, Techniques et Cultures is a veritable reference point for anyone interested in the anthropology of techniques, materiality, know-how, and the making of objects, things, and categories. It is also a beautifully designed journal, pairing articles with rich visual documentation. Each issue is dedicated to a theme, and I will mention just a few of the recent ones that could intrigue Somatosphere readers: The most recent issue on Follow the rocks is dedicated to encounters of a lithic kind: what is the mode of existence of a stone? Of course it depends which stones, where when and how. Emmanuel Grimaud and Stéphane Rennesson for example in their text “Neuro-lithic, or the sex-appeal of the inorganic” look to megalithic sites to see how these sites are used for a range of neo-shamanic, therapeutic, speculative and ancestral practices. The 2022 issue Fabricating gender opens with an interview with Marilyn Strathern and a text by Annemarie Mol “Who knows what a woman is…The differences and relationships between the sciences.” The 2020 issue on Biomimicry. Imitation of living beings and modeling of life has many fascinating articles of which a few are published in English and French, including the editors’ introduction “Techniques and Natures: For an anthropological approach to biomimicries”. And certainly don’t overlook the issue from 2017 Low tech? Wild Tech! for an off-beat take on how to inquire into innovation.
