PlONat
Nature Pluralism: Consequences of the Ontological Turn in Anthropology for Western Rationality

Project Outcomes and events Team Contacts

Project

PLONAT is a research project in contemporary philosophy that explores the different ways in which human societies conceive the natural world, and what can be learnt from this plurality.

While philosophical tradition often assumes that nature is one universal domain, the debates around the Ontological Turn in Anthropology show us that many communities work with other maps of beings and relations, where the line between nature and culture does not even exist.

The project seeks to render these anthropological insights philosophically productive. It explores what philosophy might look like if it accepts that there are many ways of understanding being. To do so, it draws on anthropological studies of two Indigenous traditions from the Americas – Achuar and Wixárika – using their ideas as reference to imagine a philosophical space where multiple ontologies can enter into dialogue.

What does PlONat aim to do?

The project’s aim is to establish a pluralist concept of nature – a minimal framework that makes it possible to recognize different ontologies as genuine alternatives.

Instead of assuming that there is only one universal model, it asks: what if the natural world can appear in several forms, each defined by its own ontology?

To build this framework, the project will:

  1. revisit debates in anthropology’s Ontological Turn
  2. examine how Western naturalism looks when seen from other perspectives, specifically those of the Achuar and Wixárika traditions
  3. propose a pluralist model of nature where these perspectives can coexist and enter dialogue

How will PlONat work?

PLONAT will not carry out new fieldwork. Instead, it builds on existing anthropological research and turns it into material for philosophical reflection. The project combines careful reading of debates in anthropology with close attention to ethnographies of two animist communities.

A key part of the work will be revisiting Philippe Descola’s studies of the Achuar, to understand the concrete observations that led to the idea of multiple ontologies in anthropology. After this, the project will engage with recent work by Mexican research teams to gain a richer understanding of the Wixárika communities of the Sierra del Nayar and to study how the Ontological Turn has been adapted to contexts beyond the Amazon, exploring corrections and nuances added by different scholars

After these steps, PLONAT will attempt a philosophical synthesis – not to reduce all perspectives to a single theory, but to build the minimal framework that allows them to coexist and speak to one another.

Outcomes and events

PlONat will share its findings through publications, workshops, and public events. Updates will be added here as the project develops.

Team

Ramón Macho Román
Ramón Macho Román

Principal Investigator
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow

Roberta Raffaetà
Roberta Raffaetà

Supervisor