In the age of Anthropocene, when the ontological turn is often taken as a (re)turn to the valorisation of non-western modes of conceptualising and composing the world, this panel proposes that non-western ontologies can be best captured in the highlands. Highland societies have ushered in the encounter between western and non-western ontologies since mountains area in social science imagination have long been considered as the ‘alter-ego’ of modernity, therefore, as poor, backward, and, often, untamed landscapes. With the onslaught of colonialism, modernity, capitalism, globalisation, highland societies cannot be comprehended in isolation. However, we presume, highland ontology is still potent in opening up possibilities of creative struggles in the way hill people live their lives, counterbalancing the destructive relationship of humans with the planet that has become ubiquitous.
Though long rejected on the basis of their perceived backwardness by the so-called progressive industrialized societies, small-scale Indigenous or marginalised communities, including those in the highlands, have become examples of ecological “sustainability” for the future, or at least, sources of inspiration, in connection with their regenerative relationship with nature, multi-species lifeworlds, or even their non-capitalist ways of thinking. Encountering these characteristics widespread in the highlands as inspiring to new small marginalised communities around the world – from zadistes to climate activists through organic cooperatives and green initiatives – invites us to encourage new alliances and more-than-human entanglements, to rethink our ways of living together in a shared and vulnerable world.
This panel situates the highlands of the planet earth as a possible site of worlding anthropology. By drawing inspiration from the margins and interstices of the world capitalist system in its broad sense, by encouraging reflections on multi-species coexistence, fieldwork situations, relationships or theoretical frameworks, the panel intends to explore new possibilities of living together to overcome the precarious world imposed on us.
