John Protevi, a Professor of French Studies and Philosophy at Louisiana State University, dives into his book on the roots of violence in human societies. He discusses how aggression is shaped not by biology alone but by social structures. The conversation touches on maronage as a form of resistance, the interplay of joy and power in communities, and the philosophical dimensions of teamwork in sports. Protevi also reflects on how historical context influences human behavior, challenging traditional views of our nature.
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Protevi's Origin Stories
John Protevi shared two formative moments that shaped his scholarly path involving physical education and philosophy at Penn State and later studies with Deleuze at Warwick.
Meeting Deleuze scholars sparked his materialist approach linking bodies, politics, and science, shaping his academic focus.
insights INSIGHT
Maroon Societies as Regimes
Maroon societies illustrate diverse strategies of political violence regimes marked by invisibility and geographic escape.
They represent symbiotic, semi-autonomous forms distinct from state or nomadic forms, enriching Deleuze and Guattari's typology.
insights INSIGHT
Bio-Enculturation Shapes Violence
Human beings are bio-enculturated, shaped by social environments that affect biological inheritance of emotion and aggression.
Pro-sociality is core to humans; people feel joy and anger about social patterns, revealing social embeddedness beyond pure biology.
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Regimes of Violence
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This week Taylor spoke with John Protevi about his recently published book, Regimes of Violence: Toward a Political Anthropology. John is professor of French studies and philosophy at Louisiana State University. He is author of Political Affect; Life, War, Earth; and Edges of the State, all published by the University of Minnesota Press.
Book Summary:
A wide-ranging examination of the roots—and possible future—of violence in human societies
Is aggression inevitable among humans? In Regimes of Violence, John Protevi explores how human violence originates and exists in our societies. Taking humans as biocultural (that is, our social practices shape our bodies and minds), he shows how aggression does not arrive from any purely biological predisposition but rather occurs only in social regimes of violence that, by manipulating the ways in which culture can shape our biological inheritance of rage and aggression, condition the forms of violence able to be expressed at any one time.
Offering detailed insights into human aggression throughout history, Protevi’s analysis ranges from evolutionary psychology to affective ideology and finally to an alternate politics of joy. He examines a wide range of seemingly disparate topics, such as cooperation between early nomadic foragers, organized sports, berserkers and blackout rages, the experiences of maroons escaping slavery, the January 6 invasion of the United States Capitol building, and responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. As he entwines the philosophical with the anthropological, he asks readers to consider why humans’ capacity for cooperation and sharing is so persistently overlooked by stories that focus on aggression and warfare.
Regimes of Violence is an important contribution to studies of Deleuze and Guattari, uniquely combining cutting-edge investigations in psychology, history, evolutionary theory, cultural anthropology, and philosophy to examine the “political philosophy of the mind.” Presenting to readers a refreshingly optimistic perspective, Protevi demonstrates that we are not doomed to war and argues that humans can build a world based on antifascism, joy, and mutual empowerment.
About the book: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517918750/regimes-of-violence/
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