Scott, Michael W. 
ORCID: 0000-0002-2301-6924
(2015)
Cosmogony today: counter-cosmogony, perspectivism, and the return of anti-biblical polemic.
Religion and Society: Advances in Research, 6 (1).
pp. 44-61.
ISSN 2150-9298
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Abstract
In this article I review critical thought about cosmogony in the social sciences and explore the current status of this concept. The latter agenda entails three components. First, I argue that – even where there is no mention of cosmogony – contemporary anthropological projects that reject the essentialist ontology they ascribe to Western modernity in favour of analytical versions of relational nondualism thereby posit a counter-cosmogony of eternal relational becoming. Second, I show how Viveiros de Castro has made Amazonian cosmogonic myth – read as counter-cosmogony – exemplary of the relational nondualist ontology he calls perspectival multinaturalism. Observing that this counter-cosmogony now stands in opposition against biblical cosmogony, I conclude by asking, what are the consequences for the study of cosmogony when it becomes a register of what it is about – when it becomes, that is, a medium of polemical debate about competing models of cosmogony and the practical implications they allegedly entail.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://journals.berghahnbooks.com/air-rs/ |
| Additional Information: | © 2015 Berghahn Journals |
| Divisions: | Anthropology |
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Apr 2015 13:37 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Dec 2024 00:52 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/61693 |
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