Baptiste Morizot - On the Animal Trail

1 Cover

2 Title Page On the Animal Trail Baptiste Morizot Translated by Andrew Brown polity

3 Copyright

4 Acknowledgements

5 Preface by Vinciane Despret‘Where are we going tomorrow?’ Forms of invisibility: ‘You cannot exist without leaving traces’ Geopolitics: ‘Tracking is the art of investigating the art of inhabiting practised by other living beings’ ‘We can change metaphysics only by changing practices’ ‘A possible detour to get us back home’ Notes

6 Preamble: Enforesting oneself Notes

7 Chapter One: The signs of the wolf Notes

8 Chapter Two: A single bear standing erect On the trail of the grizzly Giving meaning to fear A dagger on the chest The politeness of the wild The lesson of fear Piecing together a myth In our place Notes

9 Chapter Three: The patience of the pantherDay 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 7 Intermingled days The virtue of patience The animal ancestralities of humans The animal art of living Day 12 Notes

10 Chapter Four: The discreet art of tracking An art of thinking An art of sharing signs An art of self-transformation An art of seeing the invisible An art of living together Notes

11 Chapter Five: Earthworm cosmology Notes

12 Chapter Six: The origin of investigation The evolution of intelligence Seeing what is no longer there From empathy to imagination An exaptation of tracking skills The origin of the existential motive of the quest An origin of public affairs Notes

13 Credits

14 End User License Agreement

1 Cover

2 Table of Contents

3 Title Page

4 Copyright

5 Acknowledgements

6 Preface by Vinciane Despret

7 Begin Reading

8 Index

9 End User License Agreement

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Baptiste Morizot

Translated by Andrew Brown

polity

Originally published in French as Sur la piste animale © Actes Sud, France, 2018

This English edition © Polity Press, 2021

Internal animal prints: Veronika Oliinyk/iStock

Polity Press

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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4719-7

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Morizot, Baptiste, author. | Brown, Andrew (Literary translator), translator.

Title: On the animal trail / Baptiste Morizot ; translated by Andrew Brown.

Other titles: Sur la piste animale. English.

Description: English edition | Cambridge ; Medford, MA : Polity, [2021] | “Originally published in French as Sur la piste animale © Actes Sud, France, 2018.” | Includes bibliographical references. | Contents: Preamble: Enforesting oneself -- The signs of the wolf -- A single bear standing erect -- The patience of the panther -- The discreet art of tracking -- Lombric cosmology -- The origin of investigation. | Summary: “How paying attention to the tracks of animals can change our way of relating to the world around us”-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2020054891 (print) | LCCN 2020054892 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509547173 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509547180 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509547197 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Human-animal relationships--Philosophy. | Tracking and trailing--Personal narratives.

Classification: LCC B105.A55 M6613 2021 (print) | LCC B105.A55 (ebook) | DDC 304.2/7--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020054891LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020054892

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

Thanks to all the friends who have contributed from near or far to the expeditions which are at the origin of these texts, as well as reading and commenting on them. Thanks to Frédérique Aït-Touati and Marie Cazaban-Mazerolles for their alert reading and their generous feedback on the manuscript. Thanks to Stéphane Durand for his trust and his friendship. Thanks to Anne de Malleray for giving me the space and the freedom to experiment with these new forms of philosophical tracking narratives.

Thanks to Vinciane Despret for being Vinciane Despret.

Thanks to Estelle, finally, who shares a lot of these explorations with me, as well as sharing the adventure of writing them.