Animacy and the Agency of Spiritual Beings in Pluriversal Societies

IF 3.5 2区社会学 Q1 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

International Political Sociology Pub Date : 2024-05-31 DOI:10.1093/ips/olae012

Amaya Querejazu

{"title":"Animacy and the Agency of Spiritual Beings in Pluriversal Societies","authors":"Amaya Querejazu","doi":"10.1093/ips/olae012","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The concept of agency has long been a focal point of research in the social sciences. While traditional discussions primarily centered on human agency, recent scholarship has increasingly turned its attention to agency beyond the human realm. This paper introduces a framework for comprehending the agency of spiritual beings within complex pluriversal sociopolitical systems. It contends that exploring the agency of spiritual beings challenges established binary distinctions and acknowledges their inherent complexities. Drawing from a relational understanding of animacy, this framework reveals that the agency of spiritual beings cannot be simply equated with gods or fixed other-than-human agencies. Instead, it enriches our understanding of agency by highlighting how diverse agencies shape and influence social interactions. The paper compares Jane Bennett’s “thing power” and social assemblages to the Andean concepts of camaq (creating animating force) and Ajayu (spirit). By doing so, it uncovers both tensions and connections between these approaches, underscoring the need for pluriversal methodologies in analyzing pluriversal societies. In conclusion, the paper reflects on the implications of re-enchantment through animacy and its potential to provide fresh insights into understanding international phenomena.","PeriodicalId":47361,"journal":{"name":"International Political Sociology","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Political Sociology","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olae012","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The concept of agency has long been a focal point of research in the social sciences. While traditional discussions primarily centered on human agency, recent scholarship has increasingly turned its attention to agency beyond the human realm. This paper introduces a framework for comprehending the agency of spiritual beings within complex pluriversal sociopolitical systems. It contends that exploring the agency of spiritual beings challenges established binary distinctions and acknowledges their inherent complexities. Drawing from a relational understanding of animacy, this framework reveals that the agency of spiritual beings cannot be simply equated with gods or fixed other-than-human agencies. Instead, it enriches our understanding of agency by highlighting how diverse agencies shape and influence social interactions. The paper compares Jane Bennett’s “thing power” and social assemblages to the Andean concepts of camaq (creating animating force) and Ajayu (spirit). By doing so, it uncovers both tensions and connections between these approaches, underscoring the need for pluriversal methodologies in analyzing pluriversal societies. In conclusion, the paper reflects on the implications of re-enchantment through animacy and its potential to provide fresh insights into understanding international phenomena.

查看原文本刊更多论文

多元社会中的灵性和灵性的作用

长期以来，代理的概念一直是社会科学研究的一个焦点。传统的讨论主要集中在人类的能动性上，而最近的学术研究则越来越多地将注意力转向人类领域之外的能动性。本文介绍了一个框架，用于理解复杂的多元社会政治体系中精神存在的能动性。本文认为，探索灵界生物的能动性是对既有的二元区分的挑战，并承认其内在的复杂性。该框架从对万物有灵的关系性理解出发，揭示了灵界生物的能动性不能简单地等同于神或固定的非人类机构。相反，它通过强调不同的机构如何塑造和影响社会互动，丰富了我们对机构的理解。本文将简-贝内特的 "事物力量 "和社会组合与安第斯的 camaq（创造动力）和 Ajayu（精神）概念进行了比较。通过这样做，本文揭示了这些方法之间的紧张关系和联系，强调了在分析多元社会时采用多元方法的必要性。最后，本文思考了通过万物有灵重新赋予其魅力的意义，以及其为理解国际现象提供新见解的潜力。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

International Political Sociology Multiple-

CiteScore

4.80

自引率

12.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： International Political Sociology (IPS), responds to the need for more productive collaboration among political sociologists, international relations specialists and sociopolitical theorists. It is especially concerned with challenges arising from contemporary transformations of social, political, and global orders given the statist forms of traditional sociologies and the marginalization of social processes in many approaches to international relations. IPS is committed to theoretical innovation, new modes of empirical research and the geographical and cultural diversification of research beyond the usual circuits of European and North-American scholarship.