The Group for Debates in Anthropological Theory (GDAT), The University of Manchester: The 2011 annual debate – Non-dualism is philosophy not ethnography

Venkatesan, Soumhya; Martin, Keir; Scott, Michael W.; Pinney, Christopher; Ссорин-Чайков, Николай; Cook, Joanna; Strathern, Marilyn

doi:10.1177/0308275x13490310

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The difference I have in mind here concerns the currently unfashionable aesthetic-formalism of dualist structuralism, and the currently fashionable aestheticexperimentalism (for want of a better term) of ostensibly non-dualist theories such as perspectivalism, posthumanism, and postpluralism. A case in point, I suggest, may be found in 'The Group for Debates in Anthropological Theory', which in 2011 proposed the magnificently provocative (and inescapably dualist) motion 'Non-dualism is philosophy not ethnography' (Venkatesan et al 2013). Michael Scott, in proposing the motion-and in repeatedly advocating for what he called 'methodological nondualism' (Scott quoted in Venkatesan et al 2013: 303, 308, 340-342, 346-347, 353)-highlighted a key point of consensus among anthropological theorisations of nondualism, namely that: Non-dualism is the inverse of a modern Euro-American ontology often labelled Cartesian or Kantian dualism.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dual classification revisited: Rodney Needham and vertical asymmetry aboard Scottish trawlers

Webster

2021

Maritime Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Drawing on ethnographic data collected while working as a deckhand on two Scottish trawlers, this article analyses the spatialisation of social, religious, and economic inequalities that marked relations between crew members while they hunted for prawns in the North Sea. Moreover, it explores these inequalities as a wider feature of life in Gamrie, Aberdeenshire, a Brethren and Presbyterian fishing village riven by disparities in wealth and religion. Inequalities identified by fishermen at sea mirrored those identified by residents onshore, resulting in fishing boats being experienced as small floating villages. Drawing on the work of Rodney Needham, this article suggests that these asymmetries can be traced along a vertical axis, with greater to lesser wealth and religiosity moving from top/above to bottom/below. The article seeks to understand the presence and persistence of these hierarchies at sea and on land, by revisiting dual classification within anthropological theory.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dual classification revisited: Rodney Needham and vertical asymmetry aboard Scottish trawlers

Webster

2021

Maritime Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Ontology referring to the consideration of being or what it means for something or somebody to be (Packer & Goicoechea, 2000), our perspectives highlight nondualist ontological assumptions. We are cognizant of the impact of these philosophical stances on the prioritization of relations over entities (Venkatesan et al., 2013) and processes over outcomes in both the field work and analysis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Embodied Journey of an Idea: An Exploration of Movement Creativity in Circus Arts

Richard

Glăveanu

Aubertin

2022

Journal of Creative Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Knowledge about embodied creativity is in its infancy. In circus arts, performers are nowadays 'owning' their creativity making this performance domain fruitful to study embodied creativity. Building on sociocultural creativity perspectives and radical embodied cognitive sciences, the current study aimed at exploring movement creativity by tracking the journey of embodied ideas in a Circus School. Specifically, this research questioned how the interactions between actors, audiences, affordances, and actions support the emergence and evolution of movement ideas. A narrative ethnographic research design, gathering process observations in situ, was used to scrutinize the movement ideas generated by student-artists, teachers, and artistic advisors over a 4-month period. Reflexive thematic analysis led to the design of an exhaustive mapping which illustrates the key findings. Namely, the journey of an embodied idea is influenced by stimulating spaces and collaborative socio-cultural environment which ignite the actors' desire to create. This desire, in turn, unfolds into multiple ideational pathways paved with research strategies (e.g., improvisation, constraints, variability) and emotions (i.e., pleasant and unpleasant). Embodied ideas then go through an assessment process leading (or not) to its growth. Results are discussed in light of embodied, pedagogical, and emotional considerations offering an alternative to the conceptualization of idea.

show abstract

“…Even if the universe and the pluriverse exist alongside each other as ‘partially connected’ (Strathern, 2004) worlds, we must be careful not to replace one existential commitment (of the one-world world and of separation) with another (the pluriverse and relationality) in our sense-making practices. Scott warns us against distinguishing ‘two ontological types’: one separational, Cartesian ontology located in the ‘West’ opposed to a relational, nondualist ontology of the ‘Rest’ (Scott in Venkatesan et al, 2013: 306). In substituting our ontological commitments with relationality, there is a looming temptation to reinstate an essentializing distinction between the universe and the pluriverse.…”

Section: An Uncanny Understanding Of International Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ontological shift that needs to occur in IR is for the pluriverse to become a heuristic device, not a vehicle to propose a single alternative ontology (Blaser, 2014: 53). This demands, as Scott argues, a methodological nondualism, ‘one that seeks, not to impose itself globally, but to grant actual nondualisms and essentialisms equal possibility – one that seeks to elicit difference and multiplicity from others’ (Venkatesan et al, 2013: 308). IR thus needs to entertain a world of many worlds as a methodological engagement.…”

Section: An Uncanny Understanding Of International Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enacting the pluriverse in the West: contemplative activism as a challenge to the disenchanted one-world world

Klein Schaarsberg

2023

European Journal of International Relations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Within IR, scholars are starting to consider difference on the level of ontology rather than epistemology. Other worlds are introduced into IR’s political pluriverse, however, these are often encountered in faraway places, thereby playing into the colonial narrative that ontological difference does not exist in the ‘West’. This paper introduces another real from within the ‘disenchanted North’ that is shaped by contemplative activists: people using contemplation as a form of protest. An engagement with contemplative activism challenges our commonly held assumptions about what contemplation and social change are, thereby undermining the institutions of ‘science’ and ‘religion’ underlying the universe. It argues that the project of political ontology in IR should consist of two moves: drawing in other, in particular spiritual, realities into the political imaginations of IR and challenging the ontological assumptions underpinning concepts. Consequently, it suggests that the pluriverse in IR should be a methodological rather than an ontological commitment.

show abstract

The Group for Debates in Anthropological Theory (GDAT), The University of Manchester: The 2011 annual debate – Non-dualism is philosophy not ethnography

Abstract: (2013) The group for debates in anthropological theory (GDAT), The University of Manchester: the 2011 annual debate -non-dualism is philosophy not ethnography. Critique of anthropology, 33 (3). pp. 300-360.

Cited by 9 publications

References 21 publications

Dual classification revisited: Rodney Needham and vertical asymmetry aboard Scottish trawlers

Dual classification revisited: Rodney Needham and vertical asymmetry aboard Scottish trawlers

The Embodied Journey of an Idea: An Exploration of Movement Creativity in Circus Arts

Enacting the pluriverse in the West: contemplative activism as a challenge to the disenchanted one-world world

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About