Cosmologies of immanence and transcendence: Sahlins and the comparative anthropology of enchanted politics

Marshall Sahlins’ The New Science of the Enchanted Universe proposes a new description of cosmologies which Sahlins describes as “immanentist.” Sahlins offers both a novel account of immanent cosmologies and a critique of the existing theoretical presumptions of anthropology, derived from the logic of “transcendentalism.” This article constructs an exegesis of Sahlins’ major arguments and a critical evaluation of the concepts Sahlins creates. This includes questioning the ontological status of “metapersons” in different cosmologies and the universal presence of hierarchy. Ultimately, this article challenges both Sahlins’ account of anthropological comparison and the symbolic reality of immanent cosmologies, which, it argues, remain marked by ongoing transcendentalism. By critiquing the effects of this transcendentalism, this article opens a theoretical experiment: how far can anthropology take its commitment to understand immanence on its own terms? How might this transform what it means to practice anthropological theory and perform anthropological comparison?