Ontology as Theology in Sahlins's New Science of the Enchanted Universe

Abstract: Marshall Sahlins's final, posthumous New Science of the Enchanted Universe contributes importantly to our understanding of metapersons across cultures, especially in what Sahlins describes as immanentist ontologies. As such it provides a bridge between anthropology and Indigenous Studies. Sahlins rectifies or discards many classical categories of anthropological thought, including "religion" and "magic" and "spirits," but he strangely insists on retaining "gods;" this choice imports a transcendentalist (and Christian or post-Christian) cosmology into Indigenous ontologies.