The so-called ontological turn, drawing largely on Viveiros de Castro´s notion of Amazonian perspectivism, has attracted considerable attention in contemporary anthropology. The proponents of ontological relativism were indeed submitted to strong criticism focusing, among other things, on the questions of obscurity, solipsism or meta-ontology. In the theoretical section of the study, I present selected themes of this approach, its merits, but also its difficulties that I try to overcome by means of present-day phenomenological anthropology. The key question - in which are the examined otherness and its apprehending grounded? - I attempt to answer through the concepts of the everyday experience and the lifeworld. In the empirical section of the study, I illustrate the theory with the ethnography of Maya perception of crosses, mountains and caves, which are considered to be living and acting beings.
The article deals with the Victor Turner’s anthropology of pilgrimage in the light of the journey to Compostela. First, an introduction to the concept of rites de passage and communitas is given. The following is a description of the Way of Saint James, its medieval and postmodern forms. The core of the study lies in the comparison of the ethnohistoric as well as ethnographic data and corresponding pilgrims’ competing discourses with the theory. It is argued that communitas may be conceived as a structuralist, sociological or psychological phenomenon, and that all of these levels may be included in the pilgrimage. Nevertheless, it is sustained that it depends on various circumstances and multiple discourses that operate and interact in the pilgrimage process. Finally, three Turner’s topics are stressed to be useful in the present anthropology of pilgrimage: the experience as subjective feeling, bodily practice, and sensual enjoyment. Using the arguments of Halbwachs, Bruner, Connerton or Stoller, a shift from general ideas, norms, values, systems and structures to specific images, feelings, experiences and goals is recognized. Thereby the Turner’s anthropology of performance and experience is situated within the particular direction of the postmodern turn and recent social theory.
The study summarizes the work of Maurice Bloch, especially his theory of ritual and religion. Focusing on Bloch’s concepts of rebounding violence, ideology and knowledge, it is argued that the cognitive dualism does not correspond to the fact of the entirety of the human mind, a unique constellation of specific biological, natural environmental, historical, social and cultural circumstances as well as personal and experiential conditions. When dealing with some analogies of Bloch’s thought, the assumptions of Marx, Freud and Rousseau are recalled. The recognition of the eurocentric polarization also demands a mention of the Latin naturalis and supernaturalis dichotomy as well as the Greek sophistic duality of fysei and nomó. On the other hand, Bloch’s precise critique of functionalist and Marxist approaches allows moving towards deeper psychosocial processes within ritual.