MetaTOC stay on top of your field, easily

The Shape of Things to Come? Reflections on the Ontological Turn in Anthropology

Philosophy of the Social Sciences

Published online on

Abstract

Martin Paleček and Mark Risjord have recently put forward a critical evaluation of the ontological turn in anthropological theory. According to this philosophically informed theory of ethnographic practice, certain insights of twentieth-century analytic philosophy should play a part in the methodological debates concerning anthropological fieldwork: most importantly, the denial of representationalism and the acceptance of the extended mind thesis. In this paper, I will attempt to evaluate the advantages and potential drawbacks of ontological anthropology—arguing that to become a true alternative to current social scientific thinking about methodology, it has to meet certain philosophical objections.