Date: 6th of June
Time: 11:30 am
Place: Conference room, Pavillon Jardin - 29, rue d'Ulm - 75 005 Paris
Title: “How
could one be a perspectivist? Language socialization and spirit categorization
among the Trumai
Indians (Mato Grosso, Brazil).”
Abstract: Philippe Descola’s animism,
and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro’s perspectivism are two dominant analytical
concepts in the ethnology of Lowland South America. I will argue that these
so-called “ontological” approaches tend to underestimate other interesting
phenomena such as the contextual and interpersonal variations of ontological
discourses, the categorization and detection procedures of supernatural beings,
the emotional dimension of spirit encounters, and the ways this knowledge is
transmitted to children. Through the ethnography of the denetsak, the main
figures of Trumai cosmology, this presentation will try to fill this gap and
shed new light on the epistemological status of animism and perspectivism. In
so doing, my intent is also to discuss important aspects of religious
cognition, pragmatics and emotional cognition.
