Tim Ingold

Anthropology British 1948 100 quotes

Known for his work on human-environment relations, skilled practice, and the anthropology of dwelling, challenging conventional understandings of culture.

Quotes by Tim Ingold

The line is not a static representation, but a dynamic inscription.

Lines: A Brief History 2007

Anthropology is about paying attention to the ordinary, and finding the extraordinary within it.

Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture 2013

To perceive is not to receive, but to participate.

The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill 2000

The world is not a backdrop to human action, but an active participant in it.

Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description 2011

Making is a process of growth, not of fabrication.

Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture 2013

The human being is not an isolated entity, but an entangled being.

Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description 2011

The line is not a boundary that separates, but a thread that connects.

Lines: A Brief History 2007

The environment is not a resource to be exploited, but a source of life to be cherished.

The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill 2000

To think is not to represent, but to engage.

Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description 2011

The world is not a static object, but a dynamic process of becoming.

The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill 2000

Anthropology is about understanding the world from the perspective of those who live in it.

Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture 2013

Anthropology is not a science of the human, but a philosophy with people left in.

Lines: A Brief History 2011

To perceive the world is to make it inhabitable.

The Perception of the Environment 2000

Life is not a matter of holding still, but of staying mobile.

Being Alive 2011

The meshwork is a tangle of lines, not a network of points.

Lines: A Brief History 2007

We make our way through the world by walking, not by measuring.

Being Alive 2011

Knowledge is grown, along with the world, rather than constructed upon it.

Being Alive 2011

The task of anthropology is to understand the conditions under which people live.

Interview 1994

In dwelling, we attend to things; we are bound with them in and through a world that is itself in motion.

The Perception of the Environment 2000

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire—wait, that's not mine, but in anthropology, it's the kindling of curiosity in the mesh of life.

Speech 2018