NATURE, CULTURE AND THE ONTOLOGICAL TURN – DIALOGIES

Abstract

It is intended to present the results of a scientific initiation research project, which aimed to investigate how the relationship between the terms nature and culture and or nature and society occurs in three post-structuralist theories: the symmetric anthropology of Bruno Latour, Filippe Descola's anthropology of nature and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro's perspective. Highlighting the context of the ontological turn in the theoretical production of Anthropology as a starting point to understand the shift in focus from the epistemological discussion - which asks for the conditions of possibility of knowledge - to an opening to new ontologies, we sought to stand out in each selected theory, central aspects that help to understand how the authors work with the concepts mentioned above. The methodology used was a theoretical and conceptual investigation of bibliographic production, of an exploratory nature, with the analytical categories "nature" and "culture / society" as a guide. Priority was given to studying a specific work by each selected author, namely, respectively, in Latour, Reagregando o Social - an introduction to Actor-Network theory (LATOUR, 2012), in Descola, Más allá de la naturaleza y cultura (DESCOLA, 2012), in Viveiros de Castro, Cannibal Metaphysics - elements for a post- structural anthropology (VIVEIROS DE CASTRO, 2015). In addition to these reference works, a selective bibliographic search was made of academic articles that discussed the authors and the theme of the ontological turn in Anthropology, in order to complement the proposed work. It ended with initial advances in possible dialogues between the authors, counting as a conceptual guide the binomials nature / culture and or nature / society.