A perennial challenge in efforts to deal with environmental issues is the question of how to simplify. As such, where and when one simplifies is often a source of conflict, but perversely also paramount to finding a solution. This thesis focuses on one long-standing environmental issue, the whaling debate. Specifically, it performs a strategically sited microethnography of Faroese whaling, grindadráp, exploring linkages between actions on local and international scales. This thesis aims to contribute to environmental sociological efforts to analyse and resolve complex socio-environmental problems. The five papers that together constitute this thesis collectively provide a description of grindadráp from the local scale of the bays where pilot whales are killed to the international forums where whaling as a whole remains an issue at the heart of an on-going, deadlocked conflict. Primarily based on three months’ fieldwork in the Faroe Islands, this thesis combines observation, interviews, media and other literature. The theoretical lenses employed are that of the ‘ontological turn’ and the ‘theory of sociocultural viability’ (cultural theory). The former utilised as a tool for ethnographic practice with the latter used to analyse how different perspectives on reality manifest throughout the whaling conflict. This thesis demonstrates that grindadráp has changed through time as a result of the interactions between actors with different views on the matter at hand. However, in contrast to the global whaling debate, this interaction has been mostly constructive, with appropriate changes in practice ensuring grindadráp’s continued popularity within the Faroe Islands. Furthermore, its continuation will likely depend on grindadráp’s continued ability to balance different perspectives. This thesis thus echoes environmental sociological calls for improved dialogue in the framing and resolution of environmental disputes, suggesting that cultural theory provides a tool that balances relativism and pragmatism in dealing with complex environmental problems.

This paper illustrates the ways in which Kezilahabi’s 1985 dissertation makes its own daring contribution to the field of aesthetic criticism through the proposition of a new critical approach to African literature. Kezilahabi’s starting point for the elaboration this new critical approach is the realization of a prevailing tendency among literary critics to read African literature against formal and aesthetic paradigms deeply rooted in the Western literary and philosophical traditions. Opposed to the adoption of interpretative frames that do not acknowledge the philosophical implications involved in literary analysis, Kezilahabi affirms the importance of approaching literary production from within the artistic and philosophical tradition it stems from. Inspired by hermeneutic philosophy, especially in its “ontological turn” embodied by the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Kezilahabi’s focus is on literary interpretation as an ontological enterprise aimed at “situating” literature within a horizon of understanding where its proper universe of references can be disclosed.

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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis applies the ontological turn to the war fiction of veteran authors, Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O’Brien. It argues that some veteran authors desire to communicate truth through fiction. Choosing to communicate truth through fiction hints at a new perspective on reality and existence that may not be readily accepted or understood by those who lack combat experience. The non-veteran understanding of war can be more informed by entertaining the idea that a multiplicity of realities exists. Affirming the combat veteran reality—the post-war ontology—and acknowledging the non-veteran reality—rooted in what I label “pre-war” or “civilian” ontology—helps enhance the reader’s understanding of what veteran authors attempt to communicate through fiction. This approach reframes the dialogic interaction between the reader and the perspectives presented in veteran author’s fiction through an emphasis on “radical alterity” to the point that telling and reading such stories represent distinct ontological journeys. Both Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O’Brien provide intriguing perspectives on reality through their fiction, particularly in the way their characters perceive and express morality, guilt, time, mortality, and even existence. Vonnegut and O’Brien’s war experiences inform these perspectives. This does not imply that the authors hold an identical perspective on the world or that combat experience yields an ontological understanding of the world common to every veteran. It simply asserts that applying the ontological turn to these writings, and the writings of other combat veterans, reveals that those who experience combat first-hand often walk away from those experiences with a changed ontological perspective.

[pt] Parece haver uma propensão humana à ficção. Uma propensão não apenas a ficcionalizar, mas também a submergir em ficções as mais variadas. Metamórfica como os mitos e próxima ao rumor que criou as cosmogonias mais antigas, a ficção é a raiz do erro mas também o começo de toda produção de pensamento. Wolfgang Iser compreende essa propensão ao outramento como um pressuposto antropológico básico. Em seus trabalhos teóricos, Ricardo Piglia entende a ficção como via prioritária para se pensar a política. Partindo do encontro dessas concepções, esta tese apresenta uma investigação acerca das múltiplas relações entre ficção, política e metafísica, privilegiando a literatura e seu embate com o desconhecido. Em uma escrita que alia especulação teórica e investigação fabuladora, a análise dessas relações tem como percurso as concepções históricas acerca do conceito de ficção; a literatura que é atravessada pelo excesso (como as divindades, a violência, o erotismo, o horror cósmico e demais experiências desestabilizadoras); a possível obsolescência do realismo burguês frente ao Antropoceno; as contribuições que a chamada virada ontológica pode trazer não somente para o conceito de ficção, mas também para a compreensão da experiência literária como um todo; e, por fim, as forças fictícias (termo que Piglia retira de Paul Valéry) que atravessam o socius, conduzindo ou não à servidão. Os ensaios que compõem esta tese são animados por uma vontade fúngica, trançando alianças demoníacas entre diferentes pensadores e oxidando as barreiras que mantinham separadas e estanques a ficção, a política e a metafísica. / [en] There seems to be a human penchant for fiction. A propensity not only to fictionalize, but also to submerge in the most varied fictions. Metamorphic like myths and close to the rumor that created the oldest cosmogonies, fiction is the root of error but also the beginning of all production of thought. Wolfgang Iser understands this propensity for otherness as a basic anthropological assumption. In his theoretical works, Ricardo Piglia understands fiction as a priority way to think about politics. Starting from the meeting of these conceptions, this thesis presents an investigation about the multiple relations between fiction, politics and metaphysics, privileging literature and its clash with the unknown. In a writing that combines theoretical speculation and fabulous investigation, the analysis of these relationships takes as its route the historical conceptualizations about the concept of fiction; literature that is crossed by excess (such as divinities, violence, eroticism, cosmic horror and other destabilizing experiences); the possible obsolescence of bourgeois realism in the face of the Anthropocene; the contributions that the so-called ontological turn can bring not only to the concept of fiction, but also to the understanding of literary experience as a whole; and, finally, the fictitious forces (a term that Piglia takes from Paul Valéry) that cross the socius, leading or not to servitude. The essays that make up this thesis are animated by a fungal will, weaving demonic alliances between different thinkers and oxidizing the barriers that kept fiction, politics and metaphysics separated.

Dans cette thèse, j'étudie les pratiques de sorcellerie et de guérison chez les Khasi, une communauté tribale du nord-est de l'Inde. Ceux-ci forment la majorité de la population de l'état du Meghalaya. À la suite de la colonisation britannique, ils se sont principalement convertis au Christianisme. Cependant, malgré leur adoption d’un mode de vie ancrée dans la modernité et les changements socioculturels subséquents, les discours sur la sorcellerie prévalent encore aujourd'hui. Selon les Khasi, les pratiques de sorcellerie sont encore très répandues et plusieurs malédictions continuent d'affecter la population. Afin de lutter contre ce fléau, la guérison traditionnelle est fréquemment recherchée. Pour les Khasi, la preuve de l’existence de la sorcellerie se trouve dans les symptômes physiques ressentis par les victimes et par les morts mystérieuses qui se succèdent. Afin de mieux comprendre la réalité de la sorcellerie chez les Khasi, j'utilise l'approche théorique et méthodologique du tournant ontologique en anthropologie. Elle permet de jeter une lumière nouvelle sur l’étude de la sorcellerie. En effet, tout au long de l'histoire de l’anthropologie, les chercheurs ont voulu donner un sens à l'ensemble complexe de croyances et de pratiques qu'est la sorcellerie. Ils l'ont surtout expliqué comme faisant partie de la rationalité des peuples «primitifs», ou en réaction à des bouleversements sociaux. Le tournant ontologique apporte une nouvelle manière de comprendre la sorcellerie et sa réalité. Dans cette thèse, je m’appuie sur les travaux de Strathern, Descola et Viveiros De Castro, entre autres, pour montrer comment la sorcellerie peut être construite comme une réalité pour les anthropologues et les personnes qu'ils étudient. Je cherche à répondre à plusieurs questions : qu’est-ce que la sorcellerie pour les habitants du Meghalaya ? Comment la conceptualisent-ils ? Et quelle devrait être ma position d’anthropologue en matière de sorcellerie ? J'explore d'abord l'histoire sociopolitique des Khasi. Je présente un survol des événements marquants de l'histoire régionale récente, avant de souligner les particularités culturelles du groupe. Je démontre ensuite comment le paysage de guérison de Meghalaya est varié : on y retrouve des guérisseurs de religion tribale, hindoue, chrétienne et musulmane. Je donne un aperçu de leur approche respective de la sorcellerie. Je me concentre ensuite sur l'écosystème du mal à Meghalaya, expliquant et détaillant les principales malédictions affectant les Khasi et leurs voisins. Je présente la quête thérapeutique d’une famille qui a souffert de nombreuses pertes et tragédies et qui a cherché de l’aide auprès de guérisseurs de diverses confessions et ethnicités. À la suite de cette analyse, je définis la sorcellerie et la guérison selon le monde ontologique Khasi. Ces définitions émergent de la construction de la personne chez les Khasi et de la relation qu'ils entretiennent avec des entités non humaines. Dans leur monde ontologique, il est possible d'être maudit par des entités maléfiques et de guérir grâce aux dieux et déesses. Cette réalité est construite et validée à la fois par les guérisseurs et leurs patients. Ils partagent pour la plupart une compréhension commune du monde et du réel. / In this thesis, I study the practices of witchcraft among the Khasi, a tribal people of northeast India. The Khasi form most of the population of the state of Meghalaya. Following British colonization, they mainly converted to Christianity. However, despite adopting a modern lifestyle and the major socio-cultural changes it has brought, discourse on witchcraft still prevails today. According to the Khasi, witchcraft practices are widespread, and several curses continue to affect the population. In order to fight this scourge, traditional healing is frequently sought by the Khasi. From their point of view, proof of the existence of witchcraft can be found in the physical symptoms experienced by the victims and the mysterious deaths of many people. To better understand reality of witchcraft for the Khasi, I use the theoretical and methodological approach of the ontological shift in anthropology, because it sheds new light on the study of witchcraft. Indeed, throughout the history of anthropology, researchers have sought to make sense of the complex set of practices that is witchcraft. They have explained it as part of the rationality of "primitive" peoples, or as a reaction to social woes. The ontological turn offers a new way of understanding witchcraft and its reality. In this thesis, I draw upon the work of Strathern, Descola, and Viveiros De Castro, among others, to show how witchcraft can be constructed as a reality for both anthropologists and the people they study. I seek to answer several questions: what is witchcraft for the inhabitants of Meghalaya? How do they conceptualize it? How is this conception of witchcraft defined and redefined in a contemporary world? And finally, what should be my position as an anthropologist in regard to witchcraft? To answer these questions, I first explore the socio-political history of the Khasi, presenting a survey of the significant events in recent regional history, before highlighting the cultural particularities of the group. I then demonstrate how the healing landscape of Meghalaya is varied. I divide these practices according to the religion of the healers: tribal, Hindu, Christian and Muslim, and give an overview of their respective approach to witchcraft. I then focus on the ecosystem of evil in Meghalaya, explaining and detailing the major curses affecting the Khasi and their neighbours. I present the therapeutic quest of a family that had suffered many losses and sought out healers of different faiths and ethnicities. Considering this analysis, I define witchcraft and healing as it appears in the Khasi ontological world and show how they emerge from the construction of personhood among the Khasi, and from the relationship they have with non-human entities. The Khasi build an ontological world where it is possible to be cursed by evil entities and to be healed by gods and goddesses. This reality is constructed and validated by both healers and their patients. For the most part, they share a common understanding of the world and of what is real.

[pt] Este trabalho se constitui como um exercício tradutório especulativo que se realiza entre os universos conceituais do povo Araweté (povo Tupi-Guarani) e da cosmologia contemporânea, tal como apresentados pelo antropólogo Eduardo Viveiros de Castro e pelo cosmólogo Mario Novello, respectivamente. Parte-se, de um lado, da reivindicação fundamental que a cosmologia contemporânea faz de pensar a si própria através da recuperação da distinção entre as propriedades locais e globais do cosmos, levando à necessidade de um agenciamento da relação entre elas; e, de outro, da maneira como a antropologia contemporânea se pensa como um procedimento de tradução entre universos de pensamento que se dá pela explicitação das diferenças existentes entre eles, tal como proposto por Viveiros de Castro. Assim orientada, a pesquisa busca identificar na interpretação feita por Viveiros de Castro dos Araweté aquilo que poderia ser reconhecido como local e global, para então responder à seguinte questão: que efeitos seriam produzidos no conceito de cosmologia, tal como pensado desde o ponto de vista crítico de Novello, quando concebido desde o ponto de vista Araweté, produzido por tal interpretação? Com intenção de fazer jus àquilo que a antropologia hoje coloca como ação fundamental para si enquanto prática, levar a sério o pensamento do outro, este trabalho propõe como resultado principal uma imagem de cosmologia que, ao invés de se pensar através da necessidade de encontrar a solidariedade máxima entre diferentes aspectos de um mesmo mundo (uma forma de produzir coerência entre aspectos locais e globais), seria aquilo que só se constitui quando se relacionam universos ontológicos distintos a partir de um modelo de relação que, para garantir a diferença existente entre esses mundos, precisa ser de transformação. Pensada dessa maneira, a cosmologia, ao invés de oferecer uma imagem de mundo como sendo aquilo que se constitui a partir do que há de comum entre os diferentes pontos de vista que o compõem, propõe, de outra maneira, um mundo que só existe quando universos distintos podem se relacionar, de forma tal que a diferença existente entre eles seja total. / [en] This work is constituted as a speculative translational exercise conducted between the conceptual universe of the (Tupi-Guarani) Araweté people and contemporary cosmology, as presented by the anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and the cosmologist Mario Novello, respectively. The starting point for this work lies, first, in the fundamental claims made by contemporary cosmology as it recovers a distinction between local and global cosmological properties, leading to an assemblage of the relation between them. Second, it also begins withcontemporary anthropology s understanding of itself as a procedure for translating between conceptual worlds by making the differences between them explicit, as proposed by Viveiros de Castro. In this way, and through Viveiros de Castro s interpretation of Araweté cosmology, this research seeks to identify what could be taken as their views on the local and the global, in order to respond to the following question: what effects are produced on the concept of cosmology,critically defined by Novello, when conceived through the Araweté point of view, as interpreted by Viveiros de Castro? With the aim of doing justice to the practice that contemporary anthropology identifies as fundamental for itself, taking seriously other ways of thinking, this dissertation proposes that a primary result is an image of cosmology that – rather than seeking maximum solidarity between the different aspects of a single world (which is one way of producing coherence between local and global aspects) – could only be constituted when different ontological universes are placed in relation to each other. This requires a relational model that needs to be transformational to guarantee the differences between those worlds. Thought about in this way, instead of offering an image of one world as constituted through what is common between different points of view, cosmologycould propose, in another way, a world that only exists when distinct universes engage each other through total difference.

In the face of climate change, political instability, ecological destruction, extinction of species and other global issues humanity is facing, various studies are showing that a radical societal transformation is needed to avoid an ecological collapse. This thesis explores the contemporary social-environmental phenomenon “nya gröna vågen” (new-back-to-the-landers) in Sweden as a response to an urgent need for societal transformation as well as a resistance to the conventional modern society. The aim of the study is to examine the material practices in which people within “nya gröna vågen” are involved, how their ideas relate to those practices, and what could be learned from the practitioners in terms of future pathways. To meet this aim, a variant of practice theory is used, which acknowledges non-human actors as well as ideas. Material practice is conceptualized as a network of associations of human and non-humans in specific time-spaces. The study uses semi-structured interviews with practitioners within “nya gröna vågen” and observations. The results show that practices within “nya gröna vågen” are connected to the physical surrounding where they are performed. The material practices of, for example, food provisioning, are understood as embodied understandings of the world made up by a network of human and non-human actors. Further, the material practices within “nya gröna vågen” are based on the idea of a co-creation of human and non-human actors shaping the world. The results also indicate how the actors’ material world-making practices responds to the current planetary situation. In response to what they perceive to be an ecological crisis, they have become involved in practices like regenerative agriculture, adapting to the evolving landscape and water projects. The results also present how the material practices bounded to a specific place as a platform for life are giving a sense of stability and belonging. A relational way of life where people are shaping new imaginations on how to navigate and make life in the future through practices in human/non-human networks.

This paper illustrates the ways in which Kezilahabi’s 1985 dissertation makes its own daring contribution to the field of aesthetic criticism through the proposition of a new critical approach to African literature. Kezilahabi’s starting point for the elaboration this new critical approach is the realization of a prevailing tendency among literary critics to read African literature against formal and aesthetic paradigms deeply rooted in the Western literary and philosophical traditions. Opposed to the adoption of interpretative frames that do not acknowledge the philosophical implications involved in literary analysis, Kezilahabi affirms the importance of approaching literary production from within the artistic and philosophical tradition it stems from. Inspired by hermeneutic philosophy, especially in its “ontological turn” embodied by the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Kezilahabi’s focus is on literary interpretation as an ontological enterprise aimed at “situating” literature within a horizon of understanding where its proper universe of references can be disclosed.

This study discusses the difference between thinking with and about the island of Ai Stratis for knowledge production, advocating for situated research and embodied experience. Having conducted an ethnographic study, on the island of Ai Stratis in the North Aegean region of Greece in the summer of 2021, I look out from the island, assuming a tree-fold research field, including the physical island of Ai Stratis, a plane of reflexivity, as well as a literary plane. From there, I propose that research method assemblages perform reality,rather than solely describing it, and that foregrounding and backgrounding voices is a micro-political process with far-reaching consequences. I look at what is meant by a multiple reality, the relevance of ethics and care in more-than-human entanglements, and multiple worldings for sustainability understood as futurity. What more, I speak about how those entanglements blur species and material boundaries and how things and beings become with one another through molecular contagion whilst forming shifting assemblages. Discussing Ai Stratis as an island, I speak about some of the lure and danger of falling into geographical determinism and representational thinking. Further, I propose that dwelling in landscape whilst using all the senses (not only sight) may be a step towards practicing noticing and learning to be affected. I argue against strictly representational thinking and against a faceless mass of uniformity, and for the individual, intimate, face-to-face, situated, and embodied. Finally, I extend an invitation to have a conversation about guest-host relations, founded on particular, situated relationships of trust, care, respect, and a willingness to engage with change. I discuss this in the context of my entanglement as a stranger with the human and non-human hosts on Ai Stratis, as well as in a multispecies and a more-than-human, and metaphysical context of sustainability