Ontological anthropology and the deferral of critique

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.

Intersections. EEJSP_Vol1_No2

“…CEE is not the only region that was boxed in an ontological straightjacket with different rules of composition. Instead, it is part of a larger process of creating epistemic borders by creating different ontological textures across the globe (Bessire and Bond, 2014;Chibber, 2014). Therefore subversion and critical theory is always a complex Gramscian game of tactical shifts, of creating new alliances, of reformulating in order to make possible new strategic positions.…”

“…These types of global alliances are not specific to CEE. On the contrary, current criticism on postcolonial agenda (Chibber, 2014) or decolonial agenda (Bessire and Bond, 2014) reveal similar hidden partnerships in creating ontological areas operating under different 'laws', which escape global history, in need of different epistemic outlooks.…”

El naturalismo accidental: críticas a un modelo teorético de legitimación socioecológica

“…En ese sentido, se asemeja a un absoluto que desprende resultados uniformes, homogeneizando formas de vida bajo generalizaciones parciales sin tener en cuenta transformaciones políticas, económicas, sociales, territoriales, o incluso la historia, de los diferentes contextos (Ramos, 2012;Bessire y Bond, 2014;Vigh y Sausdal, 2014;Kohn, 2015) 4 . El naturalismo se ha convertido, y por lo tanto reducido, en un desconocido "otro" etnográfico que se postula como salida a las argumentaciones antro-a406 pológicas de otra cosa, siendo elusivo al tomar en serio realidades etnográficas alternativas (Candea y Alcayna-Stevens, 2012, pp.…”

We are also indigenous: the vulnerability of naturalism in western contexts of interspecies coexistence

“…En este artículo pretendo discutir la asignación del modelo teorético naturalista al contexto occidental basado en presupuestos dicotómicos que separan la naturaleza de la sociedad. Argumento que su formulación teórica esencializa territorios, culturas y perspectivas teóricas bajo un homogéneo paraguas cosmológico y analítico (Ramos 2012;Bessire y Bond 2014;Vigh y Sausdal 2014;Guillo y Hamilton 2015), reduciendo las condiciones de posibilidad para analizar la generación creativa de mundos no dicotómicos en sociedades occidentales (Candea y Alcayna--Stevens 2012;Ingold 2016). Si bien entiendo los avances logrados en la teoría social que por contraposición al naturalismo ha forjado grandes campos de investigación en contextos no occidentales, quiero enfatizar en la idea de que en Occidente muchos de nosotros también (o todavía) somos "indígenas".…”