Symbolic Malfunctions and the Failure of Nerve: Heretical Anthropology

Sepie, Amba J.; Ahrens, Rüdiger; Kläger, Florian; Stierstorfer, Klaus

doi:10.1515/9783110465938-015

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“…This is precisely how ethnographies of indigenous and traditional peoples become 'stories' and 'accounts' that are not assessed as 'true' or 'false', but truth claims that are 'true for them' or 'true enough'. As I have argued elsewhere, many ethnographers have gone to great lengths to suggest that it does not matter whether these stories are 'true' or not, but only that they are accurate representations of 'what people believe' (Sepie 2014(Sepie , 2016a(Sepie , 2016b. Anthropologist Paul Nadasdy (2007) describes the contradiction as follows:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More than Stories, More than Myths: Animal/Human/Nature(s) in Traditional Ecological Worldviews

Sepie

2017

Humanities

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Reason and rationality, upon which modern, westernized, societies have been founded, have powerfully characterized the nature of human relations with other species and with the natural world. However, countless indigenous and traditional worldviews tell of a very different reality in which humans, conceived of as instinctual and intuitive, are a part of a complex web of ecological relationships. Other species, elements of the natural world, and people are active participants in relations overflowing with communications, interactions sometimes recorded in ethnographies, or as 'myths' and 'stories'. The present article draws upon a range of traditions to explore the biases which shape how indigenous and traditional life-ways are represented in westernized contexts; the phenomenon of receiving direct insight or intuitive knowing from more-than-human worlds; and the numerous valuable understandings regarding the nature of the human being, other species, and how to live well, that are offered by a deeper comprehension of different worldviews. I also argue that the various capacities for instinctual and intuitive knowledge which accompanies these life-ways are endemic to the human species yet overlooked, the correction of which might work to usefully recalibrate our ethical relations with each other, and with other life on earth.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symbolic Malfunctions and the Failure of Nerve: Heretical Anthropology

Cited by 1 publication

References 0 publications

More than Stories, More than Myths: Animal/Human/Nature(s) in Traditional Ecological Worldviews

More than Stories, More than Myths: Animal/Human/Nature(s) in Traditional Ecological Worldviews

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