Ontological Anthropology and the Deferral of Critique
Date
2014-08
Authors
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Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
What does ontological anthropology promise, what
does it presume, and how does it contribute to the
formatting of life in our present? Drawing from our
respective fieldwork on how Indigenous alterity is
coenvisioned and how the lively materiality of
hydrocarbons is recognized, we develop an
ethnographic and theoretical critique of ontological
anthropology. This essay, then, provides an
empirical counterweight to what the ontological
turn celebrates of Native worlds and what it rejects
of modernity. In it, we examine the methodological
and conceptual investments of ontological
anthropology. The figure of the ontological as
commonly invoked, we argue, often narrows the
areas of legitimate concern and widens the scope of
acceptable disregard within social research. We
chart how this paradigm’s analytical focus on the
future redefines the coordinates of the political as
well as anthropology’s relation to critique. Finally,
we formulate three conceptual theses that
encapsulate our criticism and open this discussion
to further debate.
Description
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Keywords
Ontology, Critique, Nature–Culture, Alterity, Materiality
Citation
American Ethnologist, 41(3): pp. 440-456. DOI: 10.1111/amet.12083