The agency of non-human entity in the recent anthropology of the Indigenous Lowland South America
Anuac June 28, 2015 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.7340/anuac2239-625x-171 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
The notion of agency has become central in anthropological studies of Lowland South America Indigenous Peoples, intertwining with discussions of animism, Amerindian perspectivism, and the ontological turn. This paper examines how different concepts of agency are applied to topics like shamanism and the status of artifacts and non-human beings, highlighting both agreements and disagreements between socio-cultural anthropology and anthropological linguistics. The encounter between agency and this ethnographic context has led to the deconstruction of the concept itself.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | The meeting of the notion of agency with ethnography of Lowland South America has precipitated its deconstruction. |
Abstract
In the last twenty years, agency has entered the field of anthropological studies of Lowland South America Indigenous Peoples as a term and a topic of concern. Ethnographical and theoretical treatment of this notion has intertwined here with the revisiting of the concept of animism, Viveiros de Castro’s statements about “amerindian perspectivism” and a broader “ontological turn” in research orientation. In the paper I discuss this trend, focusing on how different notions of agency are used to talk about topics as shamanism and ontological status of artifacts as well as, more generally, of other non-human categories of beings. I pay attention too to dissonances and consonances in this field of study between approaches closer to socio-cultural anthropology and anthropological linguistics. Finally, I show how this meeting of the notion of agency with ethnography of Lowland South America has precipitated its deconstruction.