Cosmopolitical Encounters in the Americas and Beyond: Ecology, Indigenous Knowledge, and Philosophy

In numerous traditions and cultures, anthropology has faced premises about humanity, life, truth and reality that challenge modernity’s materialist, rationalist and intellectual paradigms. Be it spiritual domains, cosmic forces or non-human entities, the issue was often seen through epistemic debates about reason, belief and representation pertaining to (un-scientific) worldviews.

Since the 1990’s, anthropology took an ontological turn to treat the matter as radically different modes of being and relationality. This existential stance was also applied to recognise contrasting understandings of the world and nature that underlie environmental conflicts between indigenous peoples and scientists, companies or governments. Extending the study of political ecology, so-called “ontological politics” or “cosmopolitics” generate profound conceptual, communicative and practical difficulties. 

Against this background, the lecture discusses how in the Americas many indigenous ecological and cosmological traditions have clashed with diverse socio-environmental pressures on territories and communities.

While less prominent, similar occurrences in Africa respond to comparable neo-colonial, modern interventions. Further instances in Asia, Australia and even Europe, make this a global phenomenon.