Abstract

This chapter analyses the phenomenon of new animism in the light of the notion of cultural critique borrowed from work by anthropologists such as George Marcus and Michael Fischer. In developing the analysis, a distinction is drawn between affirmatory new animism and a critical approach to new animism. While each of these approaches acknowledges divergences between animist viewpoints and modern Western viewpoints, the affirmatory approach affirms the superiority of the animist side of the contrast; the critical approach remains more circumspect, emphasizing the hermeneutical difficulties that accompany efforts to understand the cultural phenomena at issue. The purpose of the chapter is not to vindicate either the affirmatory or the critical approach but to clarify what kind of phenomenon (or movement or orientation) new animism is, what its possibilities are and what might be the strengths and weaknesses both of new animism itself and of the criticisms that have been lodged against it.