From anthropology of things to anthropology of technology: Is there a place for co-production of techniques?

Abstract

We address the version of an ontological turn as a methodological imprint of the coproduction of knowledge. Although this perspective carries on a methodological effort to shed new light on object study through recursiveness, it neglects the importance of technical action. The present article aims to deepen the methodological venues offered by the ontological turn to address the notion of co-production related to techniques. Departing from the analyses of ethnographic contexts, we discuss whether experimentation as axes of co-production resonates with other methodological devices provided by the anthropology of technology. We argue that philistinism, inflection, and possibilism of material affordances colligate with experimentation reflected in different practices, overcoming representational bias and posthumanist excesses.