Not "multiple ontologies" but ontic capaciousness: radical alterity after the ontological turn

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    Abstract

    This essay articulates a framework for understanding radical alterity in the aftermath of the abandonment of strong claims about ontological pluralism in recent works by key figures in anthropology’s Ontological Turn. Arguing that both ontological anthropologists and their critics have overemphasized the ideational at the expense of material practice, it builds on the insights of STS-influenced work on ontology to develop a materialist case for the continued relevance of radical alterity to the anthropological endeavor. In so doing it advocates replacing a crypto-Protestant emphasis on “strange beliefs” with an attention to the materio-cultural precipitates of successful practical action in the world. In service of this goal, it elaborates a notion of “ontic capaciousness” that attends centrally to practice in a single, yet multiple, world in which multiple modes of successful practical engagement with the unknowable really Real result in the working up of disparate relatively durable and incommensurable actionable reals.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)819-835
    Number of pages17
    JournalHAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
    Volume12
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2022

    Bibliographical note

    Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

    Keywords

    • ontology
    • ontological turn
    • STS
    • the body
    • navigation
    • radical alterity

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