Francis Zimmermann's HTML files
From the three angles of philosophy, anthropology and ethnoscience, I have been pursuing three lines of research, namely: (1) anthropological fieldwork in Kerala, (2) textual studies in the Sanskrit sources of medicine and philosophy, (3) explorations into the cognitive foundations of linguistic anthropology, the development of this discipline over the last forty years, and its alliance with the anthropology of performance in the study of voice and linguistic pragmatics.
I wish to take up the challenge of introducing non-Western tongues and modes of thought into the practice of professionally established, academic philosophy. I am interested in non-Western developments of professional philosophy, and I am focussing on problematics that belong with my fields of research as an anthropologist in India, namely: (1) Environmental and medical ethics, (2) Voice and the iconicity of language, and (3) Self and others in their lifeworld.
At first trained in classical philosophy, Sanskrit and social anthropology, I studied Ayurveda with Ashtavaidyan Vayaskara N. S. Mooss in Kottayam (Kerala) during two long periods of fieldwork in 1976-78 (Kottayam) and 1981-84 (Pondicherry). A regular visitor to Kuttanad in central Kerala and a student of Malayalam contemporary literature, I am currently exploring the following domains or addressing the following issues: pathocenosis in the Ashtavaidya tradition of Ayurvedic medicine, ethnobotany (medicinal plants) and intellectual property rights in the realm of Galenic pharmacy, environmental ethics and water management in the backwaters and the gardens of spices, not to forget the one-century long historical and sociological process conducing to the eradication of matriliny and to the advent of communism in Kerala.
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Anthropology and Science History in South Asia
The “Direction d'études” which I have been representing at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales is labelled «Anthropologie et histoire des sciences dans le monde indien»; within this larger framework, I have been acquainted more specifically with Kerala society and Malayalam culture, and in my research all along the years, social and cultural anthropology has been associated with classical philosophy and the history of logic, medicine and botany in India.
As shown on this cluster of websites, my current interests are divided between (1) Ecology and bioethics, Ayurvedic medicine, ethnoscience (medicinal plants and Galenic pharmacy), and natural philosophy in Sanskrit sources; (2) Cultural linguistics, iconicity and figures of speech in the mother tongue, verbal art in performance, Vāc and the philosophy of the Voice in Indian and Buddhist sources; (3) Philosophy in India or from India, and current issues in the philosophy of mind.
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Les Angles de l'Asie
http://ehess.anglesdelasie.fr
A cluster of websites dedicated to “South and East Asia: Places, Textualities and the Social Sciences.”
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Linguistic Anthropology, Voice and Pragmatics
http://anthropologielinguistique.fr
“Scenographies of the human voice,” combining anthropology, linguistics and performance studies, have been attempted to in recent years in my research seminar. Relevant files, including downloadable documents, are published as pages of this cluster of websites, which will progressively be incorporated into a more philosophical approach to linguistic pragmatics.
to newbies (like me) and digital natives (our children):
You might like to visit http://ehess.dynamiques.fr to know the technical details regarding design, development and maintainance of my websites on a virtual dedicated server.
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Francis Olivier ZIMMERMANN
Directeur d'études à l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
Anthropologie et histoire des sciences dans le monde indien
Office address:
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
54, boulevard Raspail
F—75006 Paris
E-mail addresses:
zimmermann < a > ehess.fr
fr.zimmermann < a > orange.fr