As the sequel to James Cameron’s blockbuster hits screens on December 14, we asked anthropologist Perig Pitrou to analyze the first opus. Beyond nature and culture, what representations of life are hidden behind the film’s ecological message?
The film Avatar and his famous Na’vis, blue-skinned extraterrestrials struggling with Earthlings eager for conquest, offered in 2009 an ecological fable that has become the biggest theatrical success of all time. What conception of life does the film portray?
Perig Pitrou. The first quality of this film is to present singularities that are both biological and sociotechnical. On the one hand, we constantly come across unknown forms of life – animals, plants, humanoids… – in an abundant environment. We discover the ecology of the imaginary planet Pandora, in particular the existence of communication systems between different species that are unlike anything we know on Earth.
The diversity of life forms (in the film) is a pretext to immerse us in an animist universe, radically different from Western thought patterns.
D‘on the other hand, the film shows what this communication entails d‘a political and social point of view: species live in communion with each other, humanoid riders form an eternal and organic bond with their mount, trees speak to the living and even to the dead… The diversity of life forms is a a pretext to plunge us into an animist universe, radically different from Western thought patterns. The arrival of humans on this planet, in the form of a military-industrial and predatory complex, further accentuates this contrast. They don’t understand what they see and try to impose their vision of the world.
On the planet Pandora, humanoid riders forge an eternal and organic bond with their mount, as here in the aquatic atmosphere of the new film expected in theaters on December 14.
In other words, the film advocates a change of outlook…
P.P. Avatar echoes the work of the anthropologist Philippe Descola and in particular his most influential book: Beyond nature and culture (Gallimard, 2005) – it is also interesting to note that this book and the film were released barely a few years apart, the idea was in tune with the times… In his work, Philippe Descola tells how the study of Amazonian peoples and other traditional societies has allowed us to defocus our gaze. In the West, we have a vision that he calls “naturalistic”: we see physical similarities between humans and non-humans – all living beings are made up of DNA, cells… – but we think we have a life. spiritual richer and elaborated.
Avatar echoes the work of the anthropologist Philippe Descola and in particular his most influential book: Beyond nature and culture.
In animist ontology, which Descola studies in Amazonia but which is found in other regions of the world (South-East Asia, Arctic zone…), it is exactly the opposite. Humans consider that they share the same spiritual interiority with all the creatures of the world, while the differences are essentially physical and biological. In addition, Philippe Descola is a strong activist for the rights of indigenous peoples and for ecology, which is a central theme in Avatar.
“Sacred Seeds” from the Tree of Souls flutter here like dandelions. In the animist world of the blockbuster, trees speak to the living and even to the dead…
How are these different approaches at the heart of the anthropology of life on which you work?
P.P. The idea is to understand what “life” represents in different cultures. Every society is spontaneously confronted with birth and death, health and illness, the growth and development of living beings. NOT‘any individual can only be struck and questioned by these phenomena. But as soon as‘we look at the great explanations imagined by humans – in religions, sciences or even the arts –, we are fascinated by their extraordinary diversity. Depending on whether you are from France, Japan or even Mexico, whether you grew up in a modern society or in a more traditional community, you will not necessarily give the same definition of life, you will not recognize the same entities as alive or otherwise inanimate.
Depending on your conceptions of life and living beings, you will not develop the same practices of hunting, agriculture or the urbanization of large spaces.
The challenge is also to analyze what these different representations imply in terms of social and political organization, your relationship to nature and technological innovation… Depending on your conceptions of life and the living, you will not develop not the same practices of hunting, agriculture or the urbanization of large spaces. In particular, anthropologists conduct comparative surveys in the four corners of the world to better understand these links.
Why is science fiction one of your fields of study? This may come as a surprise from an anthropologist at first sight…
P.P. Being interested in representations of life also means taking a reflective look at our society, our culture. What conception of life is mobilized consciously or unconsciously in research laboratories? What does a biologist or a chemist have in mind when they speak of “living beings”? These questions are fundamental because we have to imagine organisms that could be totally different from what we know on Earth and nevertheless very “alive”. This is notably what exobiology does, an interdisciplinary approach studying more generally the conditions for the appearance of life and its evolution in the Universe. Science fiction is an exciting resource in this context because it depicts extraterrestrials in their natural but also social, political and technological environment. It allows us to reflect on the links between biology and culture in the broad sense.
In the first installment, humans invade Pandora as a military-industrial and predatory complex. They don’t understand what they see and try to impose their vision of the world.
To return to Avatarwas the ecological message of the 2009 film avant-garde at the time?
P.P. It can be seen as advocating for a reconnection with nature, better environmental conservation and‘greater respect for the rights of peoples… Messages that have become all the more audible and crucial today. However, as an anthropologist, I find it especially interesting to reflect on the contrast between two forms of ecology that the film depicts: one naturalist and the other animist, to use Descola’s terminology. From the start of the film, the camera offers a bird’s-eye view of a jungle untouched by any human activity, followed by a panorama of a spaceship – which, conversely, is the most anthropogenic environment imaginable!
Among the humans in the film, the social order is often dominated by virile men and the ability to monopolize resources (…). The political organization of the Na’vi seems more egalitarian and less rooted in gender stereotypes.
Avatar constantly stages this contrast between two living environments and the resulting models of society. On the human side, for example, the social order is very hierarchical, often dominated by virile men; everything depends on the ability of a few individuals to monopolize material resources – in particular a precious ore that‘we only find on Pandora… Conversely, among the natives and in particular the Na’vis, the main humanoid species on the planet, the political organization seems more egalitarian and less rooted in gender stereotypes (women can also fight and order); the energy is above all spiritual and communal.
Does this opposition refer to real facts, in the history of colonialism for example?
P.P. The Na’vi peoples are clearly inspired by traditional non-Western societies that have often been victims of colonization. Avatar thus depicts an important aspect of colonial history: “extractivism”, or the extraction of large quantities of natural resources on a colonized territory, in order to meet the needs of a colonizing country. One of the first scenes of the film, for example, is a fly-over of the activity that unfolds around mines, with their huge craters and multi-storey trucks transporting goods.
Avatar depicts an important aspect of colonial history: “extractivism”, or the extraction of large quantities of natural resources on a colonized territory.
The Na’vis are not present, but live above a particularly promising deposit, which is why humans want to expel them. The latter first try to negotiate through the “avatars”, which give their name to the film. When this solution fails, armed conflicts are always likely to take over. Obviously, this message is not always very subtle in the film, which also seeks to nourish dramatic tension, to arouse emotions and great spectacle.
The trailer for “Avatar. The way of the water” shows in particular images of paradisiacal islands and very “instagramable” scuba diving, like luxury tourism…
Avatar. The way of the water, the second installment of this franchise, hits theaters on December 14. What do you expect?
P.P. Despite its flaws, the first opus had the merit of capturing a set of concerns that have remained topical, and which have even gained in strength since its release in 2009. This is what is sometimes called “a world work”: endowed with a summary and exhaustive dimension, it presents us with an alternative universe, both radically foreign and recognizable, to better make us aware of our own. Watching the trailer for The way of the water, I must admit that I had the feeling that the originality of the first opus had perhaps been lost. I was struck by the very “instagramable” side of the images of paradise islands and scuba diving. The wild and hostile jungle seems to have given way to the imagination of luxury tourism… It certainly makes you dream, but it shouldn’t stop there! But I can’t judge on a few minutes of trailer and I remain hopeful that this second part will in turn capture something of the spirit of the times, hold up a mirror to us and offer us a reflection on our own representations of the world. . ♦
To read
Anthropologists and LifePerig Pitrou, Mimesis, August 2022, 256 p., 20 euros.
Power of plants and animist cinema. The vitality revealed by the techniqueTeresa Castro, Perig Pitrou and Marie Rebecchi (dir.), Les Presses du réel, Sept. 2020, 312 p., 26 euros.
Have
Avatar. The way of the water by James Cameron, in theaters December 14.