Joseph S. Alter: Gattungswesen – The Ecology of Species- Being. Alienation, Biosemiotics, and Social Theory

Abstract. – At the heart of political ecology is the question of what makes us human, not unto ourselves in relation to culture and our intrinsic nature but as a manifestation of our species-being, as a function of our social relationship to other animals and forms of life. Although this is a question that has been shaped by advocacy for animal rights and by ecological activism, underlying the question is an anthropological problem in the most encompassing and holistic sense of disciplinary, theoretical orientation toward the inter-dynamics of culture, sociality, biology, and the environment. The argument presented here is that political ecology should be understood in terms of social theory rather than with reference to cultural value, and that an understanding of the relationship of alienation to culture and the structure of language provides a theoretical point of orientation toward the praxis and pragmatics of biosemiotic ecology and collective consciousness. [animals, social theory, alienation, language, biosemiotics, political ecology]