{"product_id":"the-occult-life-of-things-native-amazonian-theories-of-materiality-and-personhood-9780816530427","title":"The Occult Life of Things: Native Amazonian Theories of Materiality and Personhood","description":"Native peoples of the Amazon view objects, especially human artifacts, as the first cosmic creations and the building blocks from which the natural world has been shaped. In these constructional cosmologies, spears became the stings of wasps, hammocks became spiderwebs, stools became the buttocks of human beings. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA view so antithetical to Western thought offers a refreshing perspective on the place and role of objects in human social life--one that has remained under-studied in Amazonian anthropology. In this book, ten scholars re-introduce objects to contemporary studies of animism in order to explore how various peoples envision the lives of material objects: the occult, or extraordinary, lives of \"things,\" whose personas are normally not visible to lay people. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCombining linguistic, ethnological, and historical perspectives, the contributors draw on a wealth of information gathered from ten Amerindian peoples belonging to seven different linguistic families to identify the basic tenets of what might be called a native Amazonian theory of materiality and personhood. They consider which objects have subjective dimensions and how they are manifested, focusing on three domains regarding Amazonian conceptions of things: the subjective life of objects, considering which things have a subjective dimension; the social life of things, seeing the diverse ways in which human beings and things relate as subjectivities; and the historical life of things, recognizing the fact that some things have value as ritual objects or heirlooms. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThese chapters demonstrate how native Amazonian peoples view animals, plants, and things as \"subjectivities\" possessing agency, intentionality, and consciousness, as well as a composite anatomy. They also show how materiality is intimately linked to notions of personhood, with artifacts classified as natural or divine creations and living beings viewed as cultural or constructed. \u003ci\u003eThe Occult Life of Things\u003c\/i\u003e offers original insights into these elaborate native ontologies as it breaks new ground in Amazonian studies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFernando Santos-Granero is a staff scientist for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and author of \u003ci\u003eVital Enemies: Slavery, Predation, and the Amerindian Political Economy of Life\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Power of Love: The Moral Use of Knowledge amongst the Amuesha of Central Peru.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Arizona Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50845569548562,"sku":"9780816530427","price":35.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_ee046d7b-47e9-4dd9-b21f-541c841b740d.jpg?v=1737353944","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-occult-life-of-things-native-amazonian-theories-of-materiality-and-personhood-9780816530427","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}