Ontologies as Embodied Social Practices

This article combines philosophy and anthropology to examine how ontologies—understandings of what exists—are lived through embodied practices rather than treated as abstract concepts. Drawing on Tim Ingold's ecology of life and ethnographic fieldwork with an artisanal fishing community in Siribinha, Brazil, the authors focus on Caipora, a forest being that regulates human-nature relationships. The ethnography reveals Caipora's embodied manifestations in hunting, intergenerational conversations, and religious practices, showing that its ontology is central to social and practical life. The authors argue that ethnography is an effective method for generating insights about ontologies understood as embodied and socially entangled.

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Abstract

This article brings together philosophical and anthropological perspectives to explore the empirical manifestations of ontologies and reflect on their social and practical dimensions. While some philosophical debates analyze ontologies as abstract objects disconnected from everyday ontological commitments, we build on Tim Ingold's work on an ecology of life to approach ontologies as embodied practices. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with an artisanal fishing community, namely, Siribinha, Brazil, this article focuses on Caipora, a forest being who is a significant agent in regulating human-nature relationships. The ethnography captures embodied manifestations of Caipora in Siribinha across hunting, intergenerational conversations, and religious practices, showcasing the embodied, social and practical dimensions as central to its ontology. Our analysis contributes to the debate on how ontological commitments are entangled with social practices by presenting ethnography as an effective approach for generating insights on ontologies understood in this way.