Taking Animism Seriously, but Perhaps Not Too Seriously?

Willerslev, Rane

doi:10.3167/arrs.2013.040103

Cited by 44 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Indeed, when theorising the so-called 'Anthropocene', and particularly in efforts to decolonise it, Dipesh Chakrabarty contends that it is necessary to 'take gods and spirits to be existentially coeval with the human, and think from the assumption that the question of being human involves the question of being with gods and spirits' (Chakrabarty, 2000: 16). This means taking spiritual meanings seriously as pragmatically significant agents in social life, and recognising new ontological grounds upon which to examine the interactions of tangible and intangible worlds (see Blanes and Espirito Santo, 2014;Willerslev, 2013). 'Spirit', as Bronislaw Szerszynski suggests, is a central and yet poorly conceptualised aspect of this planetary era; spirits and other beings are increasingly being convened, both to invoke stories of the Earth's ongoing transformation, and in relation to situated dynamics of energy, value and power (Szerszynski, 2017: 253).…”

Section: Soil Spiritualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Hocus pocus? Spirituality and soil care in biodynamic agriculture

Pigott

2020

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

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In this article, I participate in efforts to re-imagine soils as lively, complex, more-than-human ecologies, by turning to the largely sidestepped subject of spirituality in agriculture. Spiritual knowledge practices rarely sit comfortably alongside technoscientific, productivist accounts of soil health, and yet they can re-configure how soils are conceptualised and managed, with implications for relationships of care. Drawing on an extended period of learning with a Community Supported Agriculture project in south Wales, the article explores how care is cultivated through a non-conventional method of farming known as biodynamics, which incorporates astrological and spiritual principles. I suggest that biodynamic narratives and rituals encourage attentiveness to more-than-human agency and energy, to depth (not only underground but also above-ground influences of the air and celestial bodies), and to reciprocity between soil biota and humans. Biodynamic practices also make space for mystery, thereby resisting drives to measure and map, and offering possibilities for disrupting anthropocentric approaches to soil care. However, the example presented here also highlights how, despite biodynamic’s growing popularity, its spiritual elements have a tendency to be kept quiet, their presence sidelined by more familiar, secular, narratives. Nonetheless, I contend that if effective soil care demands more diverse knowledge practices than those that are currently obliterating critical soil communities at an alarming rate, then there can be much to learn from a touch of magic.

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Section: Soil Spiritualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Hocus pocus? Spirituality and soil care in biodynamic agriculture

Pigott

2020

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

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“…Even before anthropologists started to shift their interest to ontology by building on Viveiros de Castro's perspectivism [60,61], there have been a few who advocated the study of the religious at face value based on the ontological terms of those they studied. Malinowski may have been the first to suggest this idea ( [62], p. 42), while others, such as Harner [63] and Turner [23] followed suit. Other anthropologists took a more autobiographical approach to address how they experienced the religious during their fieldwork and wrote ethnographic novels, as this subgenre of ethnography came to be known [24,26].…”

Section: Epistemology and Ontology Of The Penumbramentioning

confidence: 99%

Occupying the Ontological Penumbra: Towards a Postsecular and Theologically Minded Anthropology

Merz

2017

Religions

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Abstract:In the wake of the postsecular turn, we propose to reappraise both the religious as studied in anthropology and how anthropologists who have religious or spiritual interests can contribute to an emerging postsecular anthropology. Such an anthropology recognizes the failure of secularization theory to dissolve the dichotomy between the religious and the secular. We propose that as anthropologists we consciously occupy the ontological penumbra, an ambiguous and plural space in which we engage with various counterparts, both human and nonhuman. This means that we have to be open to the real possibility of the existence of gods, spirits, and other nonhuman entities. These should not only be treated as subjects of study, but also recognized as valid counterparts with whom we can engage in the ethnographic encounter. While this necessitates relinquishing the former privileged position of secular and Western epistemology, it opens up the discipline to a potentially unprecedented ethnographic productivity that is epistemologically and ontologically innovative. Without neglecting its secular heritage, such a theologically minded postsecular anthropology places anthropology in a better position to explore what it is to be human, especially in terms of understanding religious and spiritual experiences.

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“…This radical alterity is supposed to be found primarily in small-scale communities in Amazonia (Viveiros de Castro 1992), Melanesia (Scott 2007), Mongolia (Pedersen 2011), and Siberia (Willerslev 2009(Willerslev , 2013c. It is within these apparently marginal communities that anthropologists hope to find alien concepts of the soul, spirits, and non-human persons that fly in the face of Western common-sense understandings of what reality entails (Candea 2011).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Taking Animism Seriously, but Perhaps Not Too Seriously?

Abstract: This article challenges the thesis of Peter W

Cited by 44 publications

References 9 publications

Hocus pocus? Spirituality and soil care in biodynamic agriculture

Hocus pocus? Spirituality and soil care in biodynamic agriculture

Occupying the Ontological Penumbra: Towards a Postsecular and Theologically Minded Anthropology

The Anthropology of Ontology Meets the Writing Culture Debate: Is Reconciliation Possible?

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