Ontology: A Difficult Keyword
Date
2014-09-25
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Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
Ontology is hard to ignore in contemporary anthropology. From conference abstracts to journal
word clouds and job descriptions, ontology is fast becoming a new keyword in marquee debates
as well as in the unfolding identity and direction of the discipline. Yet, as even the most
sophisticated participants and observers soon realize, the word itself is elusive and polysemous.
It holds in unresolved tension diverse semantic genealogies, opposed spatiotemporal scales, and
various materialist registers. This animating tension couples profound insights with lively
disagreements. At the very least, perhaps we can all agree: Ontology is an instrumentally difficult
word.
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Citation
Virtual Issue, American Ethnologist, Ontology in American Ethnologist, 1980–2014