kohn ara anthropology of ontologies

7/24/2019 Kohn ARA Anthropology of Ontologies

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Kohn 1Anthropology of Ontologies

Anthropology of Ontologies

Annual Review of Anthropology

Volume 44, 2015

Eduardo Kohn

Mcill !ni"ersity

eduardo#$ohn%mcgill#ca

Abstract

&he turn to ontology, often associated 'ith the recent 'or$s of (hilippe )escola,

Eduardo Vi"eiros de *astro, and +runo atour, -ut also emerging in many other

places, is, in Eli.a-eth (o"inelli/s formulation, symptomatic and diagnostic of

something# t is, here argue, a response to the sense that sociocultural

anthropology, founded in the footsteps of a -road humanist linguistic turn, a field that

ta$es social construction as the special $ind of human reality that frames its in3uiries, is

not fully capa-le of grappling 'ith the $inds of pro-lems that are confronting us in

the so called Anthropocene an epoch in 'hich human and nonhuman $inds and

futures ha"e -ecome increasingly entangled to the etent that ethical and political

pro-lems can no longer -e treated as eclusi"ely human pro-lems# Attending to these

re3uires ne' conceptual tools, something that a non6reductionistic, ethnographically

inspired, ontological anthropology might -e in a pri"ileged position to pro"ide#

Keywords

Ontology, Anthropological &heory, Anthropocene, Multinaturalism


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While philosophy as a field was totally dependent on the

concept of modernity, it appeared to me that anthropology

could be an entry into the contemporary precisely because it

too! ontology seriously at last" #ot as symbolic representation"

#ot as those beliefs left on the wrong side of the moderni$ing

frontier" %ut as a life and death struggle to have the right to

stand in ones own time and place"

+runo atour 92014a:

Introduction

here discuss the turn to ontology in soci ocu ltural anthropology# &his turn,

narro'ly defined, is closely tied to Eduardo Vi"eiros de *astro/s multinaturalism,

and a series of con"ersations around his 'or$# n the contet of 8orth American

anthropology this turn is sometimes thought of as a ;rench turn 9Kelly 2014:, 'hich

'ould, in addition, in"ol"e the recent 'or$s of (hilippe )escola and +runo atour

'hose separate and original ontological pro??, 1>>1, 1>>5: and @oy agner 91>?1, 1>>1: 9see especially Benare,

Bol-raad, and astell 200C, Bol-raad and (edersen 200>, Bol-raad 2012, 2017a,

2017-, Bol-raad, (edersen and Vi"eiros de *astro 2014D see also *orsn FimGne. and

illersle" 200C, Al-erti and +ray 200>, (edersen 2011, M# =cott 2017, (aleHe$ and

@is


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or social contet# f the narro' turn itself, as 'ill eplain, cannot -e so easily

identified as a coherent mo"ement, then this -roader one is e"en more difficult to

identify as such#

8onetheless the "arious ontological anthropologies share something important#

&hey are responses to certain conceptual pro-lems and contradictions that arise as

anthropological thought faces ne' challenges# &hey are, in Eli.a-eth (o"inelli/s

92015: 'ords -oth symptomatic and diagnostic of some sort of -roader shiftD they

are reactions, at times eplicit, to the specter of a glo-al ecological crisis# &his crisis,

'ith all its political "alences, all of its attendant imaginaries, and all of the 'ays in

'hich it is changing our understanding of the relations 'e humans ha"e to that 'hich

is other than human, is ecologi.ing 9atour 2017 I2012J: ho' 'e thin$ a-out politics

in many fields ranging from history 9*ha$ra-arty 200>, 2012, 2014: to political

theory 9*onnolly 2017: to literature 9Morton 2017:# t is also forcing us to recogni.e

that anthropology, as a humanistic science, for all of its insights, lac$s some of the

conceptual tools needed to face these pro-lems# &he turn to ontology in

anthropology, then, is, -elie"e, a response to this -roader pro-lem# here see$ to

trace some of the contours of a general ethnographically inspired ontological

anthropology, -oth in its narro' and -road iterations, arguing that such an approach is

uni3uely poised to de"elop conceptual tools that can -e part of an ethical practice that

must also include and -e transformed -y our relation to the nonhuman 9Kohn 2014:#

;or the purposes of this essay define ontology as the study of reality one

that encompasses -ut is not limited to humanly constructed 'orlds# One could,

alternati"ely, reser"e the 'ord ontology for the study of +eing, in the Beideggerian

sense and use ontic for reality, or one could thin$ of ontology in terms of

-ecoming 9)eleu.e and uattari 1>?C I1>?0J:# One could also, as some do,


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thin$ of ontology in terms of the "aria-le sets of historically contingent assumptions

through 'hich humans apprehend reality a position that can ma$e ontology nearly

synonymous 'ith culture 9see Ven$atesan et al# 2010:#

An important related 'ord is metaphysics, 'hich define as the systemic

attention to or the de"elopment of more or less consistent and identifia-le styles or

forms of thought that change our ideas a-out the nature of reality# Metaphysics is

thus concerned 'ith concepts# And, crucially, a metaphysics is not necessarily an

epistemology# &hat is, it is not necessarily concerned 'ith $no'ledge and its o-


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Kohn Anthropology of Ontologies

eperimental ethnographic filmLeviathan, 'hich ta$es placeon, around, as 'ell as

under and a-o"e a deep6sea fishing "essel, is an eample of anthropology as ontological

poetics# Multiple cameras attached to -odies, thrust under 'ater, or mounted on

different parts of the ship disrupt any singular human perspecti"e or narrati"e# &he

result is a distur-ing dissolution of the self as 'e -ecome en"eloped in a monstrous

marine 'orld of piscine creatures, reeling -oats, -utchered -odies and di"ing gulls#

Leviathanpresents no argument and certainly no metaphysicsD rather it dissol"es many

of the conceptual structures that hold us together so that 'e can -e made o"er -y the

unepected entities and forces that emerge from the depths 9see =te"enson and Kohn

2015:# &he culti"ation of representational craft as a 'ay of -ecoming attuned to other

$inds of realities, a hallmar$ of 'hat am calling ontological poetics, is also e"ident in

the 'riting of Mcean 9200>:, @affles 92012:, =te'art 92012:, =te"enson 92014:, and

(andian 92015:#

&here are, in addition, ontological approaches concerned 'ith +eing in ahuman sense 9e#g#, Fac$son 1>?>: and its -ecoming under ad"erse conditions

9+iehl and oc$e 2010:# +ecause its eplorations are largely limited to the human in

terms of the human, it is not a focus of this essay# 8onetheless, this approach can

spea$ to distincti"ely human moral 'orlds in 'ays that can also -e cogni.ant of the

historically gi"en sets of ontological assumptions that might frame these 9Ligon 2014:#

f 'e accept that ontology concerns the study of reality, ontological

anthropology -ecomes a particular -ut capacious 'ay of studying reality that ta$es into

account t'o $ey elements of our field one methodological, the other theoretical# &he

ma


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Kohn CAnthropology of Ontologies

reflei"e forms of "oicing attention to that practice# +y -eing ethnographic, and -y

de"eloping conceptual resources out of this engagement, ontological anthropology, as

'ill discuss -elo', ma$es a uni3ue contri-ution to 'hat might other'ise seem to -e a

topic -est reser"ed for philosophy# &he methodological focus also delimits the su-


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Kohn ?Anthropology of Ontologies

constructions ma$es them language6li$e, regardless of 'hether the items related are

eplicitly treated as linguistic# &he +oasian approach, ho'e"er, is tied to language in

a fairly eplicit 'ay 9e#g#, +oas 1??>D see =toc$ing 1>C45?65>:# &his is e"ident in

eert./s sym-olic anthropology 9eert. 1>C7a: as 'ell as its criti3ues 9*lifford and

Marcus 1>?:, 'hich dra' attention to the constructed nature of anthropological

representations themsel"es, and thus amplify the linguistic e"en as they incorporate

more sophisticated analyses of po'er and history# )ur$heim/s approach 91>7?

I1?>5J:, although not linguistic in name, eplores elements of social life that are

essentially sym-olic# Bis definition of a social fact -ears all the formal properties of a

sym-olic representational system such as human language in 'hich relata are produced

-y and contri-ute to the system through 'hich they relate a system that achie"es a

$ind of closure, totality, and separation -y "irtue of this special $ind of relationality#

designate as cultural any entity that is treated as ehi-iting such properties,

regardless of 'hether or not it is so named#

n the contemporary ;rench tradition this linguistic turn is much more eplicit,

influenced as it is -y the semiology of ;erdinand de =aussure 91>? I1>1J:,

especially as it 'as ta$en up -y *laude G"i6=trauss# &he =aussurean tradition sees

the sign, of 'hich the human linguistic sign is considered the prime eample, as -oth

ar-itrary and con"entional# t is ar-itrary in the sense that it has no direct connection to

or moti"ation from its o-


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Kohn >Anthropology of Ontologies

9Keane 2007:# G"i6=trauss sa' the dualism that the =aussurean gap implies as the

human pro-lem, and it is e"ident also in the 'or$s of heirs to this structuralist

tradition such as Michel ;oucault# hen ;oucault 91>C0 I1>J:, for eample, 'rites

that life itself 'as unthin$a-le -efore the historical conditions that made such a

concept possi-le, he is reflecting the human reality that this -roader turn to language

and social construction re"eals at the same time that he is "oicing the difficulty, gi"en

an analytical frame'or$ -uilt on human language, to conceptuali.e that 'hich is outside

of language or culture#

My "ersion of ontological anthropology, -ased on the ethnography of human

relations to rainforest -eings in Ecuador/s !pper Ama.on, addresses the pro-lem of

language directly 9Kohn 2017:# argue that the -est 'ay to reconfigure anthropology/s

relationship to language is through the ethnographic study of ho' humans

communicate 'ith a host of nonhuman -eings in a 'orld that is itself

communicati"e -ut not sym-olic or linguistic# &his allo's us to see language from

the outside, so to spea$, -y loo$ing at its relationship to a -roader series of forms of

communication that are representational -ut not language6li$e, and 'hose uni3ue

properties emerge ethnographically at the same time as they re"eal 'hat ma$es

language special# &he semiotic frame'or$ that is helpful here is that of 1>thcentury

philosopher and logician *harles (eirce 9e#g#, (eirce 1>55:, rather than =aussure/s,

-ecause it can situate human representational processes "is66"is nonhuman ones

9Boffmeyer 1>>, 200?, Born-org 1>>, )eacon 1>>C: in 'ays that allo' for 'hat

(eirce calls the Out'ard *lash 9cited in Keane 2007: 'ith that 'hich lies -eyond

human forms of representation# am interested in understanding ho' these $inds of

realities ma$e us o"er once the grip of language is loosened# argue that doing this is

crucial for anthropology, since it re"eals ho' so many of our conceptual assumptions


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9e#g#, a-out difference, contet, relationality and commensura-ility: are dra'n from

language and its properties, e"en in post6humanist approaches# etting right this

relationship of language to non6language, especially "ia the route of the

representational6-ut6not6linguistic, as re"ealed in the comple communicati"e

ecologies of tropical forests, 'ill, -elie"e, help us create the conceptual resources

'e 'ill need as 'e learn to ecologi.e#

&he -road ontological turn in anthropology has an affinity 'ith a related turn

today in philosophy, 'hich is also trying to free itself from the Kantian reorientation of

philosophy as the study of human thought# &his orientation has, according to Puentin

Meillassou 9200? I200J:, $ept philosophy from appreciating 'hat he calls the great

outdoors the 'orld -eyond human representation 9see also +ryant 2011D +ryant,

=rnice$, and Barman 2011D Barman 2012:#

do not thin$ it is 'arranted to see the turn to language, 'hich pro"ides the

foundations for anthropology, as 'rong# Puite the oppositeD it gets at something

fundamental a-out the reality of human life# t too, in this sense is ontological# And

yet -y attending to a certain aspect of reality it forecloses attention to others# =o, in

-rief, ontological anthropology, as define it, is the non6reducti"e ethnographic

eploration of realities that are not necessarily socially constructed in 'ays that allo'

us to do conceptual 'or$ 'ith them# see this as a response to a conceptual,

eistential, ethical and political pro-lem ho' to thin$ a-out human life in a 'orld

in 'hich a $ind of life and future that is -oth -eyond the human and constituti"e of

the human is, today, in


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f culture is that 'hich is socially constructed, then nature, 'hate"er it is, can -e

defined as that 'hich is not# Of course the idea of nature is certainly historically

contingent and need not eist at a gi"en time or in a gi"en place# And yet ontological

anthropologists 'ould hold that an eclusi"e focus on social construction, such that, if

'e can tal$ a-out nature, it is only as culture, is a pro-lem#

&here are many anthropologists 'hose 'or$ refuses that solution in 'ays that

orient their 'or$ to'ard ontology# Many of these precede the narro' turn to ontology#

regory +ateson 92000 I1>C2J, 2002 I1>C>J:, in his insistence on loo$ing at humans

as parts of larger ecologies of mind, and 'ho sa' a glo-al en"ironmental crisis

as the conse3uence of our ina-ility to grasp these -roader relations is one important

ontological anthropologist#

Ontological concerns seem to -e difficult to a"oid in certain arenas of in3uiry#

As much as our anthropological responsi-ility is to demonstrate the historical

construction of nature or landscape or forests 9+alGe 1>?>, @affles 2002:, there are

also forces that mo"e in the other direction, and conceptuali.ing these is someho'

inescapa-le 'hen dealing anthropologically 'ith the en"ironment or ecology

9Belmreich 200>, *hoy 2011:# =imilarly, as important as it is to focus on the social

life of things 9Appadurai 1>?:, there is something a-out ethnographic attention to

materiality that pro-lemati.es the relationship -et'een human 9social: su->7D Mol 2002D

&hompson 200CD @o-erts 2014:# And, although attention to em-odied eperience has

largely -een a humanistic concern 9Fac$son 1>>:, phenomenology pro"ides one 'ay to


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-rea$ do'n distinctions -et'een humans and nonhumans -y -ypassing the messy

pro-lem of humanly eceptional forms of representation 9ngold 2000, 200C, 2011D see

also Ballo'ell 1>0:# ;inally, if religion can -e treated as a cultural system 9eert.

1>C7- I1>J:, ta$ing spirits seriously forces us onto ontological terrain 9*ha$ra-arty

2000, =ingh 2015:#

atour, especially in his de"elopment, along 'ith others, of 'hat has come to -e

$no'n as Actor 8et'or$ &heory 9A8&: 9atour 1>?? I1>?4J, *allon, a', and

@ipp 1>?, *allon 1>>> I1>?J: has -een central in allo'ing anthropologists 'or$ing

'ith nonhumans, the en"ironment, materiality, medicine, science, technology, and the

-ody, a 'ay to -ring nature into culture and culture into nature and much of the

-roader turn to ontology in our field relies in some 'ay or another on this frame'or$#

A8& is sometimes thought of methodologically as symmetrical anthropology 9atour

1>>7 I1>>1J 107: in its refusal to gi"e eplanatory priority to one actor or entity

o"er anotherD its metaphysical correlate 'ould -e a flat ontology, 9+ryant 2011: the

'orld is the product of many $inds of agencies, none of 'hich is necessarily more

important than any other# A8& see$s to o"ercome the mindQ-ody dualism -y

assuming that e"erything has mind6li$e agential as 'ell as matter6li$e properties# &his

$ind of relationality, 'here relata do not precede their relating, has a =aussurean fla"or

to it, and is treated as eplicitly language6li$e in some "ersions of =cience and

&echnology =tudies 9see a' and Mol 200?5?:#

E"en if she 'ould resist appeals to the gendered authoritati"e foundations that

terms li$e metaphysics and ontology can imply, )onna Bara'ay is one of the most

important "oices in the anthropological turn to ontology# As a trained -iologist she

insists on the responsi-ility of getting the sciences right, e"en as she interrogates

=cience/s claims to truth 3uestioning any sharp line -et'een fact and


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fa-ulation 9Bara'ay 1>>1a, 1>>1-:# And she is dedicated to li"ing 'ell 'ith other

$inds of -eings, something that she dra's from her daily life 'ith her canine

companions 9Bara'ay 2007, 200?:# =he holds these commitments in generati"e

tension 'ith a sensiti"e attunement to politics and history# =he has a comple and

su-tle engagement 'ith the Marian and feminist tradition that allo's her to trac$

po'er, desire and the gendered historical structures that channel these# n short, if

the turn to ontology is critici.ed for -eing apolitical, reactionary, too focused on

eotic alters 9+essire and +ond 2014: a claim 'ith some foundation -ut one that 'ill

critically e"aluate in my discussion of the narro' turn against 'hich it is raised then it

is certainly not one that can -e le"eled against Bara'ay# And Bara'ay/s proJ:, and atour 92017 I2012J: is in some

'ays a ;rench turn# And it is the one that is producing the most interest 9and

aniety: in 8orth American anthropology# &his turn shares 'ith so much of

anthropology certain assumptions a-out representation that come from =aussurean

linguistics as it 'as adopted -y G"i6=trauss# &hese assumptions are e"ident e"en in


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)escola additionally shares 'ith G"i6=trauss an emphasis on -road

ethnological comparison and the formalist insistence that the apparent infinite

di"ersity of the 'ays in 'hich people li"e in relation to others is the product of more

finite 'ays of apprehending and construing these relations# ;or )escola 92017 I2005J:

these constraints are cogniti"e and logical 9cf# G"y6+ruhl 1>2 I1>10J:# One

understands others 9-e they human or nonhuman: -y self6comparison# n doing so

there are only certain formal possi-ilities, and these lead to sets of ontological

assumptions that then -ecome sta-ili.ed in certain historical contets#

+y comparison to oneself an other can -e understood to ha"e similar

interiorities and dissimilar eteriorities# &his orients 'hat )escola terms animism,

'hich, as an ideal type is "isi-le among many indigenous societies in the Ama.on and

in the -oreal regions of 8orth America# &he animist holds that all -eings are persons

9animals and spirits ha"e a $ind of interiority or selfhood that is compara-le to that of

human persons: -ut these -eings are differentiated -y their eteriorities the -odies

that these "arious $inds of persons inha-it# &his is 'hy a shaman can -ecome a


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interiority:# t is only 'ith naturalism that nature as an o-


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Kohn 1CAnthropology of Ontologies

assumptions can reali.e possi-le 'orlds -y selecti"ely actuali.ing certain properties

inherent to the 'orld -eyond human cognition 9Kohn and )escola 200>D )escola

2010D )escola 2014:# t can also help us understand ho' the specific differences each

set of assumptions has relati"e to the others can affect the interactional dynamics

among any of them#

Viveiros de Castros Cannibal Metaphysics

Vi"eiros de *astro/s 92014 I200>J: metaphysics gro's from his masterful comparati"e

synthesis of the "ast Ama.onian ethnological literature that permits him to identify the

perspecti"al 3uality of so much of Amerindian thought 91>>? I1>>J:# Many

Ama.onians su-scri-e to some "ersion of the follo'ing perspecti"al logic under

normal circumstances humans see humans as humans, animals as animals, and spirits 9if

they see them: as spirits# +ut predatory -eings such as


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Kohn 1?Anthropology of Ontologies

Vi"eiros de *astro/s reflections on perspecti"ism lead him to conclude that 'e

are dealing here 'ith a metaphysics that is fundamentally different from that 'hich

informs 'estern academic thought, including anthropology# &a$ing this seriously -y

doing conceptual 'or$ 'ith its implications distorts the anthropological pro


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Kohn 1>Anthropology of Ontologies

metaphysical assumptions, one in 'hich such ideas are merely -eliefs, or social

constructed representations#

(erspecti"ism has tremendous ethnological traction# t clarifies and unites a

series of ethnographic o-ser"ations on, for eample, ethnonyms, $inship, predation,

shamanism, clothing and -odily adornment, and relations to nonhumans# As a form

of relating in 'hich the other is integral to the self, 'hites figure prominently 9Kohn

2002, 2017, Vi"eiros de *astro 2004, VilaRa 2010 I200J,:# +ut Cannibal

'etaphysics is not


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multinaturalism immanent in the -o'els of multiculturalism itself 9Vi"eiros de *astro

2014 I200>J >7:# t thus -ecomes a 'ay to arri"e at genuinely alter concepts 9see also

Bage 2012:, deri"ed other'ise to 9although not necessarily outside: our metaphysics

9(o"inelli 2012:#

*ritics of Vi"eiros de *astro ha"e emphasi.ed the ecessi"e generali.ation of

his high structuralist frame'or$, for not all Ama.onians, let alone Amerindians,

are perspecti"ists 9@amos 2012D &urner 200>:# &hey ha"e also argued that the politics

of multinaturalism is too -road and generically oriented to'ards glo-al issues 9such as

the AnthropoceneD see )ano's$i and Vi"eiros de *astro 2014: to capture the e"eryday

political struggles of Ama.onian peoples 9@amos 2012, +essire and +ond 2014:, and

that spea$ing for Amerindian ontologies from the outside is politically suspect 9&odd

2014D =almond 2014D -ut see Kopena'a and Al-ert 2017 I2010J for an ela-orate

Ama.onian alter6metaphysics, 3uite resonant 'ith multinaturalism, authored -y a

Sanomami shaman and political acti"ist:#

hat to ma$e of the potential theoretical and political rele"ance of a style of

thought that a: may not -e characteristic of all Amerindians and -: e"en if it does

characteri.e some of them, may ha"e little rele"ance to the, political situations

regarding the predicament of indigenous peoples in ad"erse interethnic contets

9@amos 2012 4?7:T &he Ama.on is -ecoming increasingly deforested and

increasingly incorporated into national and glo-al political economies and

anthropology should not lose sight of this comple reality# n such a contet 'hat

-earing might Ama.onian perspecti"al ideas, dra'n from seemingly timeless

cosmologies 9no' fragmented: and syl"an 'ays of life 9no' receding in the face of

more potent economic forces: ha"e to do 'ith the e"eryday li"es of people in the

Ama.on 9+essire and +ond 2014:T


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Vi"eiros de *astro/s pro??: feminist anthropological classic, (he )ender of the )ift,

'hich similarly deri"es anthropological concepts from Melanesian concepts to

thin$ 'ith and against certain 'estern forms of thin$ing, in"ol"ing nature, gender, the

person, scale, and relationality#

*rucial to these concerns a-out concepts are they too general,

ethnographically "alid, politically rele"antT is the 3uestion of alterity# Vi"eiros de

*astro/s goal is to capacitate and etend a fragile style of perspecti"al thought alter

to 'estern metaphysics# And the narro' turn holds that, although such forms of alter6


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thin$ing need not lie outside the est or modernity 9see (andolfo 200C, 200?D

(edersen 2011D =$afish 2011, n#d#: there isa 'estern metaphysics against 'hich these

can -e


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person thin$s, -ut a call for a form of thin$ing, a"aila-le to anyone, that is a-le to

see possi-le 'ays of -ecoming other'ise# Multinaturalism is not a 'ay of

commensurating difference -ut of communicating -y differences 9Vi"eiros de

*astro 200410:, recogni.ing that there is a form of relating that allo's differences to

-e held together rather than to -e su-sumed# t certainly gro's out of certain styles of

thin$ing that ethnography re"eals, -ut it also gro's out of the recursi"e nature of

comparati"e ethnographic thin$ing itself in 'hich one/s form of thin$ing is constantly

-eing changed -y one/s o-


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of eistence, at the same time as it offers a 'ay to thin$ a-out ho' to li"e 'ith

the $inds of -eings such modes institute# i$e many of the accounts discussed

already, its metaphysics is a $ind of a method that responds to the suspicion that too

much description may -e limiting# atour/s goal is to recogni.e, and gi"e dignity to

multiple modes of eistence, or ontologies, and ho' the -eings such modes institute

might find a 'ay to d'ell together in a common oi!os# Be does so -y tracing out the

lightest of metaphysics, one 'hose descriptions 'ill capacitate, rather than hinder the

"arious modes of eistence it thus recogni.es# A mode of eistence is, for

atour, something that has its o'n 'ay of -eing 9its o'n $ind of tra2 -ut 'ith the hope of etending it -eyond its humanistic

linguistic usage:# =tones, spirits, poetry, and scientific o-


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successfully mo"ing among 'orlds, as she recogni.es that our shared sur"i"al is at

sta$e in ma$ing room for these "arious modes of eistence and 'hat they might ha"e

to contri-ute#

atour/s pro


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li-eral forum in 'hich all modes might -e a-le to coha-itate 9see ;ortun 2014 715:#

Bere thin$ it could -e producti"e to etend atour/s pro


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Kohn 2CAnthropology of Ontologies

cannot -e ignored 9+essire and +ond 2014:# Must all politics -e a local politics, and,

if so, is ontological anthropology antithetical to thisT thin$ the ans'er to these is noD

there are important ontological pro


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Kohn 2?Anthropology of Ontologies

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