Critical Anthropological Engagements in Human Alterity and Difference

316 Pages·2016·2.88 MB·English

by  Bjørn Enge Bertelsen

CRITICAL
ANTHROPOLOGICAL
ENGAGEMENTS IN
HUMAN ALTERITY AND
DIFFERENCE
Edited by
BJØRN ENGE BERTELSEN
and
SYNNØVE BENDIXSEN
APPROACHES
TO SOCIAL
INEQUALITY AND
DIFFERENCE
Approaches to Social Inequality and Difference
Series Editor
Edvard Hviding
University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
Synnøve Bendixsen
University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
The book series contributes a wealth of new perspectives aiming to
denaturalize ongoing social, economic and cultural trends such as the
processes of ‘crimigration’ and racialization, fast-growing social-economic
inequalities, depoliticization or technologization of policy, and simulta-
neously a politicization of difference. By treating naturalization simulta-
neously as a phenomenon in the world, and as a rudimentary analytical
concept for further development and theoretical diversification, we iden-
tify a shared point of departure for all volumes in this series, in a search
to analyze how difference is produced, governed and reconfigured in a
rapidly changing world. By theorizing rich, globally comparative ethno-
graphic materials on how racial/cultural/civilization differences are cur-
rently specified and naturalized, the series will throw new light on crucial
links between differences, whether biologized and culturalized, and vari-
ous forms of ‘social inequality’ that are produced in contemporary global
social and political formations.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14775
Bjørn Enge Bertelsen • Synnøve Bendixsen
Editors
Critical
Anthropological
Engagements in
Human Alterity and
Difference
Editors
Bjørn Enge Bertelsen Synnøve Bendixsen
University of Bergen University of Bergen
Bergen, Norway Bergen, Norway
Approaches to Social Inequality and Difference
ISBN 978-3-319-40474-5 ISBN 978-3-319-40475-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40475-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016956840
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
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publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in
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contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
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A
cknowledgments
Both the idea for and the time and resources for this book project was
made possible by the framework of the broad, theory-driven project
“Denaturalizing difference: Challenging the production of global
social inequality” (DENAT) at the Department of Social Anthropology,
University of Bergen. Moreover, the generous funding of DENAT
made it possible to bring most of the contributors of this book together
for the seminar “Ontologizing Difference: De- and re-naturalizing
boundaries” in Bergen, January 2015. We are grateful for all com-
ments, interventions, and other contributions offered at this seminar,
including those from Tone Bringa, Vigdis Broch-Due, Annelin Eriksen,
Edvard Hviding, Christine M. Jacobsen, Ståle Knudsen, Marianne Lien,
Marit Melhuus, Knut Rio, Olaf Smedal, and Hege Toje. Our thanks
are also extended to our good colleagues at the Department of Social
Anthropology, University of Bergen, for their engagement with issues
at the core of our discipline.
The great people at Palgrave Macmillan—and Mireille Yanow and Milana
Vernikova in particular—also deserve a special thanks for their support, pro-
fessionalism, and continued belief in this book project. We are grateful to
the anonymous reviewer who provided us with useful critique and com-
ments to push this book project forward. We would also like to thank those
that have provided feedback to various aspects of the volume, including the
Introduction to the book. Our gratitude extends, in particular, to Thomas
Hylland Eriksen, Martin Holbraad and Morten Axel Pedersen for their
keen, close, and critical reading of an early draft of the Introduction to this
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
volume, as well as to Henrik Vigh who early on engaged with the guiding
ideas of the book as well as several of the chapters.
Lastly, we would like to mention, especially, all the contributors to this
volume who have taken part in this journey with us—from initial idea to
now a book completed. Thank you!
c
ontents
1 Recalibrating Alterity, Difference, Ontology:
Anthropological Engagements with Human
and Non-Human Worlds 1
Bjørn Enge Bertelsen and Synnøve Bendixsen
Part I Vistas 41
2 The Relationality of Species in Chewong Animistic
Ontology 43
Signe Howell
3 Alterity, Predation, and Questions of Representation:
The Problem of the Kharisiri in the Andes 65
Cecilie Vindal Ødegaard
4 False Prophets? Ontological Conflicts
and Religion-Making in an Indonesian Court 89
Kari Telle
5 Chronically Unstable Ontology: Ontological Dynamics,
Radical Alterity, and the “Otherwise Within” 113
Jon Henrik Ziegler Remme
vii
viii CONTENTS
Part II Materialities 135
6 The Hold of Life in a Warao Village: An Assemblage
Analysis of Householding Practices 137
Christian Sørhaug
7 Disrupting Book Smartness: Critical Ethnography
and the “Ontological Turn” in Anthropology and 
Educational Studies 159
Lars Gjelstad
8 Beyond Cultural Relativism? Tim Ingold’s “Ontology
of Dwelling” Revisited 181
Are John Knudsen
Part III Politics 203
9 Ontological Turns Within the Visual Arts: Ontic
Violence and the Politics of Anticipation 205
Martin Thomassen
10 Alter-Politics Reconsidered: From Different Worlds to 
Osmotic Worlding 229
Kathinka Frøystad
11 “It Seems Like a Lie”: The Everyday Politics of World-
Making in Contemporary Peru 253
Astrid B. Stensrud
CONTENTS ix
12 Reading Holbraad: Truth and Doubt in the Context
of Ontological Inquiry 273
Eldar Bråten
Postscript: Taking the Ontological Turn Personally 295
Adam Reed
Index 305