Mattia Donno | The University of Manchester (original) (raw)

Papers by Mattia Donno

Research paper thumbnail of A Historical Multileveled Ontology: Conviviality and the Challenge for a moral Humanity in the Amazon

Following the increasing consensus around the “Ontological Turn” within the Anthropological debat... more Following the increasing consensus around the “Ontological Turn” within the Anthropological debate, the amount of inquiries on Amazonian communities rapidly increased. What is probably more striking about this shift is the repositioning of premises it introduced in our discipline, the production of investigations regarding the Amazon inaugurated a new era for Anthropology. The comprehension of the experiences related to those civilizations who do not share the “Western” ontological premises has become crucial both in the development of our discipline and in the debate around the constitution of the Moderns, namely, the distinction between Nature and Culture. The core assertions of these new perspectives, mainly rotating around the work of Viveiros de Castro, regard the ontological foundation of reality. The cosmological perception shared within the Amazon postulates a common Humanity underpinning the living experience of every entity. In addition, due to this common essence, each animal species perceives itself as human, or, in other words, the only epistemology is the “human one”: each entity is human in its perception of the world. What implicates the evident differences in resemblance, behaviour and perception within the animal kingdom – including human species – is the complete and essential diversity of bodies. My argument blossoms from this discussion but tries to make a step forward. I will argue how in terms of morality – phrased through the concept of conviviality –, this proposal appears too dichotomous, is indeed clear how, in some Amazonian contexts, the overarching essence of every entity, humanity, is disposed hierarchically. I will show how, through comparison of different Amazonian communities, Animality and Humanity rely on similar essences, but are, and this is fundamental, disposed in a hierarchical scale: animal perspectives are a corrupted form of humanity. In addition, since the body is the central foundation of ontology, I will argue how humanity is crafted and preserved thanks to techniques of the body. In order to go beyond this impasse between ontological studies and more traditional ones, I am suggesting the term historical multileveled ontology to refer to this context in which Being appears as a horizontal, but hierarchical, array of forms of humanity, and in which morality and behaviours form the ontology of entities. My argument will advance a theoretical proposition that can represent a via media between the Ontological Turn and more conviviality-centric interpretations and therefore can be a fruitful contribution to the debate on Amerindian ontological questions and, more broadly, to the development of Anthropology after the critiques represented by Post-Modernism.

Research paper thumbnail of A Historical Multileveled Ontology: Conviviality and the Challenge for a moral Humanity in the Amazon

Following the increasing consensus around the “Ontological Turn” within the Anthropological debat... more Following the increasing consensus around the “Ontological Turn” within the Anthropological debate, the amount of inquiries on Amazonian communities rapidly increased. What is probably more striking about this shift is the repositioning of premises it introduced in our discipline, the production of investigations regarding the Amazon inaugurated a new era for Anthropology. The comprehension of the experiences related to those civilizations who do not share the “Western” ontological premises has become crucial both in the development of our discipline and in the debate around the constitution of the Moderns, namely, the distinction between Nature and Culture. The core assertions of these new perspectives, mainly rotating around the work of Viveiros de Castro, regard the ontological foundation of reality. The cosmological perception shared within the Amazon postulates a common Humanity underpinning the living experience of every entity. In addition, due to this common essence, each animal species perceives itself as human, or, in other words, the only epistemology is the “human one”: each entity is human in its perception of the world. What implicates the evident differences in resemblance, behaviour and perception within the animal kingdom – including human species – is the complete and essential diversity of bodies. My argument blossoms from this discussion but tries to make a step forward. I will argue how in terms of morality – phrased through the concept of conviviality –, this proposal appears too dichotomous, is indeed clear how, in some Amazonian contexts, the overarching essence of every entity, humanity, is disposed hierarchically. I will show how, through comparison of different Amazonian communities, Animality and Humanity rely on similar essences, but are, and this is fundamental, disposed in a hierarchical scale: animal perspectives are a corrupted form of humanity. In addition, since the body is the central foundation of ontology, I will argue how humanity is crafted and preserved thanks to techniques of the body. In order to go beyond this impasse between ontological studies and more traditional ones, I am suggesting the term historical multileveled ontology to refer to this context in which Being appears as a horizontal, but hierarchical, array of forms of humanity, and in which morality and behaviours form the ontology of entities. My argument will advance a theoretical proposition that can represent a via media between the Ontological Turn and more conviviality-centric interpretations and therefore can be a fruitful contribution to the debate on Amerindian ontological questions and, more broadly, to the development of Anthropology after the critiques represented by Post-Modernism.