Demons as Decolonial Hyperobjects: Uneven Histories of Hauntology

Abstract This essay explores the decolonial potential of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) through Timothy Morton’s notion of hyperobjects and its recurring figure of the demonic. While Morton critiques anthropocentrism and invokes non-Western ideas, their reliance on science as the arbiter of reality creates an implicit hierarchy that confines the demonic to a residual role. The article argues for rethinking the demonic as a historical co-author rather than a metaphor or a belated effect of scientific excess. Reappraising Morton’s use of Derrida’s hauntology and engaging with postcolonial concepts of uneven development, this essay situates spectrality within layered temporalities where scientific and non-scientific epistemologies intersect. This theoretical move is illustrated through an ethnographic account of Islamic rituals in a Malaysian hospital, where traditional healers address ghosts inhabiting advanced medical technologies. These practices destabilize Western epistemological dominance and foreground coexistence across ontological differences. The essay proposes an object-oriented demonology attentive to historical unevenness and alternative modes of knowing beyond Western scientific universalism.