If Not all Stones Are Alive : Radical Relationality in Animism Studies

Abstract

Irving Hallowell's conversation with an Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) elder in the early twentieth century has gained increasing attention in recent decades. It has been cited by many involved in the multi-disciplinary turns to ontology, materiality and relationality. In particular, it has inspired many researchers involved in the new (approach to) animism . This article considers efforts to rethink what person or relation might mean - in the light of Indigenous ontologies and of the ferment of reflection and analysis offered by many colleagues. It proposes that we have not yet sufficiently understood what the elder intended by telling Hallowell that only some stones are animate. A more radically relational understanding of personhood has implications for the ways in which we approach and engage with/in nature, culture, science and religion.