@book{e3da13c68841418bbe28cd552715edde,
title = "Disparate ontologies?: Revisiting Descola's ontological schema among Northern societies",
abstract = "This book builds upon the considerable theoretical heuristic of Philippe Descola{\textquoteright}s four-field ontology schema. It takes a critical look at how anthropologists categorize domains of thought in cross-cultural perspectives. It investigates whether categorizing ontological reckoning in broad, ahistorical contexts is a fruitful analytical heuristic exercise, suggesting that cross-cultural studies of philosophical and epistemological phenomena carefully consider the contrasts and commensurability between the units of analysis under assessment. We question whether Descola{\textquoteright}s distinctions between animism and totemism in particular represent operationalizable and comparable units of analysis and offer findings that suggest animism is a foundational ontological phenomenon upon which other ways of understanding the natural world and one{\textquoteright}s place in it might be cognitively and culturally built upon. Thus, we suggest that animism is an independent variable in the contexts of cross-cultural comparisons of ontology, and that other forms of ontological reckoning within Descola{\textquoteright}s schema may be taxonomically subordinate, dependent variables.",
keywords = "religionsvidenskab, religionsantropologi, etnografi, ontologier, Philippe Descola, teori og metode, totemisme, reinkarnation, perspektivisme, komparativ analyse",
author = "Matthew Walsh and Sean O'neill and Geertz, {Armin W.} and S{\o}rensen, {Jesper Fr{\o}kj{\ae}r} and Felix Riede and Rane Willerslev",
year = "2023",
doi = "10.7146/rvs.vi2.135749",
language = "English",
series = "Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift",
publisher = "Religionsvidenskabelig Skriftr{\ae}kke Aarhus Universitet",
number = "2",
}