Animism Beyond the Soul : Ontology, Reflexivity, and the Making of Anthropological Knowledge
- Submitting institution
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King's College London
- Unit of assessment
- 31 - Theology and Religious Studies
- Output identifier
- 103290840
- Type
- B - Edited book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- Berghahn Books
- ISBN
- 9781785338656
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- April
- Year of publication
- 2018
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This innovative volume offers a unique rapprochement between the anthropology of ontology, anthropological approaches to reflexivity, the anthropological conceptualisation of animism, and its related focus upon the souls of humans, animals, and (in this volume) even robots. It is the outcome of a conversation between the editors, who wanted to assemble case studies from across the globe to mobilise this important and timely conversation within anthropology. We synthesised the research findings of each contributor in the introduction.
As first editor, I selected and invited five of the seven authors whose contributions appear alongside our own single-authored chapters as editors. I also made lead editing choices for the conceptual work of the volume, notably as first author of the introduction, where the novel concept of ‘hyper-reflexivity’ is introduced to anthropology. I coined another new term/concept that appears in the introduction and is key to the volume’s contribution. This is the ‘reflexive feedback loop’ that anthropologists and their research partners routinely mobilise between themselves. Each chapter builds upon these concepts to show how anthropologists jointly produce knowledge of the societies they study with their research partners, who nowadays have often been exposed to concepts derived from anthropology or related disciplines, such as ethnology or ethno-history. The contributors further reflect upon how their research partners filtered knowledge about their religions and societies through the reflexive feedback loop, thus leading to re-conceptualisations of classic anthropological concepts like ‘animism’.
The volume originally appeared in 2016 as a special issue of the leading anthropological journal Social Analysis (volume 60, number 1). When Berghahn Books approached us to publish it again in 2018, within its ‘Studies in Social Analysis’ series that invites select issues to appear in this prestigious forum, I undertook all the editorial work, liaising with publishers and authors, including for the new index.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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