EDUARDO VIVEIRUS DE CASTRO’S CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: ONTOLOGICAL TURN AND DECOLONIZATION OF THOUGHT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31392/cult.alm.2025.2.53Keywords:
cultural anthropology, community, human, multinaturalism, nature, ontological turn, perspectivism, society, structureAbstract
The article considers the concept of cultural anthropology of Brazilian scientist Eduardo Viveiro de Castro.Viveiros de Castro's project of cultural anthropology is considered in the broad context of cultural and philosophical theories of the second half of the 20th – early 21st centuries. The idea is substantiated that Viveiros de Castro's works are a search for new paths for anthropological research in the 21st century. Special attention is paid to the consideration of Viveiros de Castro's research in the context of the ontological turn in modern anthropology. This direction also includes the works of Bruno Latour, Philippe Descola, Roy Wagner and Marilyn Strathern. These scientists try to overcome the isolation of cultural anthropology on exclusively epistemological issues and turn to the consideration of ontologies that construct the worldview of communities. In particular, Philippe Descola identifies four ontological models: animism, totemism, naturalism and analogism. Naturalism is inherent in Western European society, which relies on the achievements of modern science. But in order to understand pre-modern communities, according to theorists of the ontological turn, it is necessary not only to describe these communities, but also to reproduce their ontologies.Viveiros de Castro develops the central principles of the ontological turn in his works. The article examines the polemic of the Brazilian scientist with the interpretation of animism in Descola's theory. The connection between the concepts of perspectivism and multi-naturalism developed by Viveiros de Castro with the post-structuralism of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and the actor-network theory of Bruno Latour is also traced. Viveiros de Castro's project of cultural anthropology is considered as an attempt to decolonize thinking. The scientist suggests that the new generation of anthropologists not only study pre-modern communities, but also learn from their worldview.
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