In this sense, Eiseley anticipates the 21 st century realization that we have entered the Anthropocene era 1. Still, Eiseley feels that man’s brain also puts him in a dangerous position because it has enabled him to become a “world eater” and “space leaper.” He understands that human interventions into Earth’s natural order are causing the deaths and extinctions of other-than-human species and ultimately putting our own species at risk of extinction. This hidden weapon has allowed humans to avoid extinction when many other complex forms of life have been eliminated. In contemplating the animal origin of humans, he finds that the big leap on man’s evolutionary road is the development of his brain. Along with other writings, his poem “The Changelings” suggests that he recognizes his own animality and reaffirms his kinship with other animals. However, I hope to show how his representation of himself as “changeling” calls into question the binary split. It may seem that Eiseley is reinforcing the “modern” idea (amply discussed by Bruno Latour) of the split between nature and culture. He believes man has fallen out of nature, and that he now destroys the green world that man as animal depends on but which he has forgotten. His fossil findings prompt a reflection on the differences between humans and other animals. Eiseley’s attention to other-than-human life forms, both living and extinct, allows him to see what most scientists of his generation could not see. 1 This term was coined by Paul Crutzen and his colleagues Will Steffen, Mark Williams, Jan Zalasiewic (.)ġLoren Eiseley speaks of his scientific profession as archeologist and anthropologist humbly as that of “a bone hunter,” yet his writings describe his field discoveries with poetic language and they open onto philosophical reflections on human and nature.Son œuvre force le lecteur à participer à son projet de rénovation de notre univers mental et culturel. Les écrits de Eiseley pressent l’humanité de renouer avec notre passé animal de façon à respecter l’ordre naturel dont nous sommes issus. De ce fait, il anticipe le point de vue éco-centrique qui devient nécessaire dans la période qui a fait suite à la révolution industrielle, période de plus en plus désignée comme l’anthropocène.

Il pense que l’homme moderne s’est dénaturé en devenant le destructeur de la planète, entrainant la mort et l’extinction des formes de vie non humaines. Plutôt que d’accepter la doxa des sciences mécaniques modernes, il utilise son savoir d’archéologue ainsi que son expérience personnelle pour trouver de nouvelles ouvertures sur l’univers et sur la place de l’homo sapiens en son sein.

Il remet en cause les thèses sur la science, la nature et l’homme qui avaient cours à son époque. Loren Eiseley se pose en scientifique qui critique les pratiques scientifiques de ses contemporains.

The invisible pyramid by loren eiseley