Perig Pitrou

Perig Pitrou is an anthropologist, and a CNRS senior researcher at the Maison Française d’Oxford. He leads the team “Anthropology of Life” in the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale at the Collège de France, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (https://anthropologyoflife.com). After an M.A in philosophy at the University Sorbonne Paris I, he obtained a PhD in Anthropology at the EHESS, Paris. He has carried out a long-term ethnographical investigation in Mexico to study the conceptions of life and wellbeing and the relations with the natural environment in Amerindian communities. The results of this work are presented in Le chemin et le champ. Parcours rituel et sacrifice chez les Mixe de Oaxaca (Mexique) and La noción de vida en Mesoamérica.
His project of “Anthropology of Life” involves an epistemological endeavour which articulates the different approaches used to tackle the topic of life (Ecologies of Life, Science and Technology Studies, Anthropology of Biopolitics and Forms of Life). After the publication of Les anthropologues et la vie, he is finishing the writing of a book entitled Anthropology of Life. Object and Methods.
Within an anthropological comparative framework, he investigates the relations between biotechnology and society, in research programs funded by the Fyssen Foundation, the CNRS, PSL University and the Agence Nationale pour la recherche (ANR).
He founded the collective “Life in the making” (https://lifeinthemaking.net) to explore how interdisciplinary collaborations can bring new insights for improving the quality of life in human societies. He now carries out two interdisciplinary projects, on “Astrobiology”, with astrophysicists, and on the topic of “Living Cities”, with architects and urban planners.
Visiting scholar at the University College London, the University of Brasilia, the UNAM of Mexico, and the Casa de Velázquez of Madrid, he has written and co-edited 14 books and special issues, published in France, Brazil, the United States, Australia and Japan. His works on life course rituals, animism, biotechnologies, biomimicry, biobanking, bio art or astrobiology have been presented in international journals such as Current Anthropology, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Mana, L’Homme, Techniques & Culture, and in more than 200 communications given in research seminars and international conferences.