Summary Of Bruno Latour's Facing Gaia

Anthropocene, known as the evolution of human activities that dominant the influence in the environment. Human impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystem is described in Bruno Latour’s Facing Gaia. Bruno Latour, a well known anthropologist and a sociologist. Latour categorized the world into Nature and Culture. Nature is a representation of male and Culture is the representation of female. The correlation between Nature and Culture is another representation between the agents and non agents. Latour also categorized the modernity as “animate” and “(de)animate” which has a relation towards Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein. Latour believes that the world is falling apart towards different diversities which he classified as Nature/Culture. The world

Latour’s analysis of modernity is described as anthropocene. It is the geological age of humans, a present day epoch. The effect on Earth includes global warming and ocean acidification according to Facing Gaia. The message from Latour indicates that modernity has affected nature in a harmful way. An example from Latour, “The Angel of Geostory”, by Stephanie Ganachaud gives a representation on the effects of modernity in society. The dance is an indication of the innovation of the world. The dance shows the woman running away and going towards the other side of the room in hope. As the woman runs towards the other side of the room, which demonstrates the escape from the past. On the other side, the woman is frozen and in shock, “Fleeing from one horror, she has met another, partly created by her flight” (Latour 1). The woman flees from the past; however, the future is the outcome of modernity that made her fearful and undetermined. The dance is a portrayal of the Earth, “the one the Modern had first fled - the archaic horror of the past - and what they had face today” (Latour 2). Latour is signifying that human are constantly changing the functions of Earth in a dreadful way. The past was what caused humans to change and the advancement in science. Nonetheless, the results of the activities is worst and fear becomes perpetual. What has been done cannot be undone, it is already too late to fix the mistakes according to Latour. Human has interrupted nature causing a dismal

Inanimate objects are powerless which are controlled by agents, known as humans. For instance, the environment is inanimate being gradually impaired by human activities or due to modernity. Latour is pointing out that humans are (de)animating nature through modernity, “The idea of a Nature/Culture distinction, like that of human/nonhuman” (Latour 68). In the first lecture, Latour argues that the Nature and Culture is a diverse topic. The idea is presented among society where people are discriminated through different aspects. Thus, human are classified in hierarchy; the wealthy will invariably rule the poor. Such that the idea of bourgeoisie and proletariat goes into play. Latour connects the thought back into modernity; yet, it is between human and nonhuman. In other words, human view the world as an inanimate object as human continue to advance in a catastrophic way. In fact, Latour believes that the Earth will become worse if human continues to advance. People have been ignoring the different signs of nature. As mentioned, the environment has been a disaster; nature is weakened. Likewise, if nature falls apart it also indicates that humans are falling apart. Life is like a cycle, without nature humans will not be existing today. However, due to the fact that nature is vulnerable, human chooses to ignore their existence. Modernity is an advancement towards science and in the social world. The biggest concern of Latour is nature being (de)animated, “we have probably