Beyond Naturalism and Toward a New Humanism: Curated Articles (2007-2024)

This curated corpus presents a selection of 24 scholarly articles published between 2007 and 2024, offering a deep exploration of the evolving debates at the intersection of anthropology, ontology, and epistemology. The works featured in this collection address pivotal questions regarding the boundaries of nature and culture, the ontological turn in anthropology, and the complex relationships between human and non-human entities. By examining contemporary perspectives on animism and the material-symbolic practices of various societies, the articles included here reflect a movement toward rethinking humanism, particularly through the lens of relational ontologies that transcend the limits of traditional naturalism. The contributions of renowned thinkers such as Philippe Descola form a key component of this collection, providing critical insights into the dynamics of modern anthropology. Through case studies, interviews, and comparative analyses, these works challenge established ontological and epistemological frameworks, advocating for a more integrated, transdisciplinary understanding of human and non-human relationships.

Key themes explored in this corpus include:

• The Ontological Turn in Anthropology: A comprehensive exploration of the ontological shift in anthropology, which focuses on reconfiguring the understanding of human and non-human relationships. This turn emphasizes a new epistemological lens that challenges dualistic interpretations of human existence and invites more nuanced interactions with the non-human world.
• Beyond Nature-Culture Dualism: Critical examination of the nature-culture divide, offering both historical and contemporary perspectives on how these boundaries are constructed, maintained, and transcended. This theme includes discussions of how the dissolution of such binaries fosters a more holistic view of the human as part of a broader ecological and ontological network.
• Animism and Materiality: Analysis of animism not only as a belief system but as a crucial ontological framework that reconfigures relationships between humans, animals, and material objects. This theme underscores how animism challenges Western notions of objectivity and materialism, fostering alternative ways of understanding the world’s material and symbolic practices.
• Epistemological Boundaries and Modernization: An inquiry into how modernization impacts epistemological practices, particularly in indigenous contexts. This theme explores how indigenous knowledge systems intersect with modern ideologies, creating new epistemic tensions and dialogues, especially in regions such as the Amazon.
• The Role of Non-Human Entities in Social Sciences: Investigations into how animals, plants, and other non-human entities are represented and understood within the social sciences. This theme questions the rehabilitation of animal agency and its broader implications for rethinking human-non-human relationships within both academic and societal contexts.

This corpus emphasizes the importance of transdisciplinary approaches, pushing the boundaries of anthropology and philosophy to address the ontological and epistemological challenges that arise when moving beyond naturalism and toward a new, relationally oriented humanism.

2024

1. Barroso, Gabriel. (2024). Provincializing Nature: A Phenomenological Account of Descola’s Relative Universalism. HUMAN STUDIES. DOI: 10.1007/s10746-024-09749-y
2. Cahen, Fabrice; There, Christine. (2024). The Making of Beings: Reproduction, Beyond Nature and Artifice (18th-21st Centuries). REVUE DE SYNTHESE, 145(1-2). DOI: 10.1163/19552343-14234055

2023

1. Cohen, Matthew Isaac. (2023). Ramayana and Animism in Wayang Puppet Theatre. AOQU, 4(2), 227-247. DOI: 10.54103/2724-3346/22208
2. Garcia-Labrador, Julian; Vinolo, Stephane. (2023). Disassembling Descola: Phenomenological Intersections in Onto-Typological Anthropology. OPEN PHILOSOPHY, 6(1). DOI: 10.1515/opphil-2022-0268

2022

1. Golsenne, Thomas. (2022). At the Roots of Seeing: Contemporary Issues in the Figurative Anthropology of Philippe Descola. PERSPECTIVE-ACTUALITE EN HISTOIRE DE L ART, (2), 323-340. DOI: 10.4000/perspective.28418
2. Sivkov, Denis. (2022). The Ontological Turn in Anthropology and Technological Change in the Indigenous Collective. LOGOS, 32(2), 193-225. DOI: 10.22394/0869-5377-2022-2-193-224
3. Skafish, Peter; de Castro, Eduardo Viveiros. (2022). The Metaphysics of Extra-Moderns: On the Decolonization of Thought. A Conversation with Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. LOGOS, 32(2), 65-96. DOI: 10.22394/0869-5377-2022-2-65-95
4. Tym, Christian. (2022). Christian Modernisation in Amazonia: Emerging Materialism in Shuar Evangelicals’ Healing Practices. CAMBRIDGE JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, 40(2), 124-142. DOI: 10.3167/cja.2022.400209
5. Vigy, Marie. (2022). Uses of Animism in the Contemporary Novel: Representation and Function of Exchanges with the Animal World. THELEME-REVISTA COMPLUTENSE DE ESTUDIOS FRANCESES, 37(1), 65-74. DOI: 10.5209/thel.78921

2021

1. Almqvist, Olaf. (2021). Beyond Oracular Ambiguity: Divination, Lies, and Ontology in Early Greek Literature. SOCIAL ANALYSIS, 65(2), 41-61. DOI: 10.3167/sa.2021.650203
2. Beraldi, Gaston G. (2021). The New Realism in Latin American Philosophy. Review of Ontological and Epistemological Assumptions in the Realism of M. Beuchot: I. The Nature-Culture Dualism. LOGOS-ANALES DEL SEMINARIO DE METAFISICA, 54(2), 397-420. DOI: 10.5209/asem.72792
3. Santoire, Emmanuelle; Desroche, Jean; Garcier, Romain. (2021). Physicalities in Transition: The Case of Hydropower Dams in French Alpine Valleys. REVUE DE GEOGRAPHIE ALPINE-JOURNAL OF ALPINE RESEARCH, 109(3). DOI: 10.4000/rga.9530
4. Turner, Ben. (2021). The Limits of Culture in Political Theory: A Critique of Multiculturalism from the Perspective of Anthropology’s Ontological Turn. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL THEORY, 20(2), 252-271. DOI: 10.1177/1474885117738117
5. Vate, Virginie. (2021). Revisiting Chukchi Spirits. SIBERIAN HISTORICAL RESEARCH-SIBIRSKIE ISTORICHESKIE ISSLEDOVANIYA, (4), 55-75. DOI: 10.17223/2312461X/34/5

2020

1. de Saulieu, Geoffroy; Rostain, Stephen; Taylor, Anne-Christine; Descola, Philippe. (2020). Between Chestnut and Chonta Palm: Tribute to Juan Bottasso (1936-2019). JOURNAL DE LA SOCIETE DES AMERICANISTES, 106(1), 223-228. DOI: 10.4000/jsa.18178
2. Rostova, N. N. (2020). Aggiornamento of Anthropology: Bridging the Border Between Nature and Culture. VESTNIK SANKT-PETERBURGSKOGO UNIVERSITETA-FILOSOFIYA I KONFLIKTOLOGIYA, 36(4), 731-750. DOI: 10.21638/spbu17.2020.411

2019

1. Turner, Ben. (2019). Affinity and Antagonism: Structuralism, Comparison and Transformation in Pluralist Political Ontology. PHILOSOPHY & SOCIAL CRITICISM, 45(1), 27-49. DOI: 10.1177/0191453718797985

2017

1. Kipnis, Andrew B. (2017). Governing the Souls of Chinese Modernity. HAU-JOURNAL OF ETHNOGRAPHIC THEORY, 7(2), 217-238. DOI: 10.14318/hau7.2.023

2016

1. Descola, Philippe; Scarso, Davide. (2016). The Ontology of Others: Interview with Philippe Descola. REVISTA DE FILOSOFIA AURORA, 28(43), 251-276. DOI: 10.7213/aurora.28.043.EN01
2. Ingold, Tim. (2016). A Naturalist Abroad in the Museum of Ontology: Philippe Descola’s *Beyond Nature and Culture*. ANTHROPOLOGICAL FORUM, 26(3), 301-320. DOI: 10.1080/00664677.2015.1136591

2015

1. Guillo, Dominique. (2015). What is the Place of Animals in the Social Sciences? The Limits to the Recent Rehabilitation of Animal Agency. REVUE FRANCAISE DE SOCIOLOGIE, 56(1), 135-163. DOI: 10.3917/rfs.561.0135

2014

1. Cavalcanti-Schiel, Ricardo. (2014). How to Build and Overtake Ethnographic Frontiers: Between the Andes and Amazon, for Example. CHUNGARA-REVISTA DE ANTROPOLOGIA CHILENA, 46(3), 453-465. DOI: 10.4067/S0717-73562014000300009

2007

1. Pottier, Richard. (2007). Moving Beyond Naturalism and Toward a New Humanism. REVUE FRANCAISE DE SOCIOLOGIE, 48(4), 781+. DOI: 10.3917/rfs.484.0781