Anthropology in the Light of Simondon

This article traces the idea of magic and its relation to religion and technicity that Gilbert Simondon sets out in On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects [METO] (1958) and how this might be seen to be in dialogue with the anthropological schemas developed by James George Frazer, Emile Durkheim, and Marcel Mauss. The article explores how Simondon’s idea, which is set out in detail in METO, combines his schema of phase shifts with his redevelopment of elements of Gestalt psychology, in passages elaborated in Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information [ILFI]. The article concludes by underlining how Simondon’s new schema of the development of these forms depends on his understanding of processes of individuation.