Oral Presentation Session

Reviewed by: American Ethnological Society

Of interest to: Students

Primary Theme: Anthropocene

(3-0480) New Perspectives on the Extrahuman

Counterposed movements in contemporary anthropology situate humanity in radically different ways. In one direction, theorists of the Anthropocene place humanity at the center of global change: humanity is the prime mover. In the other direction, theorists of various stripes loosely grouped in an ontological turn displace or even dissolve humanity within a world of other agents. Both approaches potentially miss the key dynamic in the middle ground: the articulation of what might be called the extrahuman or preterhuman. By extrahuman or preterhuman we mean the augmentation of the distinctively human to be more than only human. Attention to extrahumanity drives salvationist projects of treating prophets as both human and divine, cryptozoological searches for hidden human-like creatures, transhumanist visions of a future for humankind beyond physical limits of life and death, and spiritualist projects that infuse an anthropocentric cosmos with a vitalist sensibility. In extrahuman projects, humanity is not just defined against the nonhuman, nor dissolved into ever-emergent relationality. Rather, it is a grounding context. By paying attention to the extrahuman--and specifically, paying attention to how our field interlocutors define human and extrahuman--anthropologists can address classic questions of what it means to be human without fetishizing or dissolving the category.

Organizer(s)

• Jon Bialecki

  Honorary Fellow
  University of Edinburgh

Chair(s)

• Jon Bialecki

  Honorary Fellow
  University of Edinburgh

Presenter(s)

• Jon Bialecki

  Honorary Fellow
  University of Edinburgh

• Yasmine Musharbash

  Senior Lecturer
  UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

• Thorgeir Kolshus

  University of Oslo

Organizer(s)

• Matt Tomlinson

  Associate Professor
  Australian National University

Chair(s)

• Matt Tomlinson

  Associate Professor
  Australian National University

Presenter(s)

• Matt Tomlinson

  Associate Professor
  Australian National University

• Adam Reed

  University of St Andrews

Discussant(s)

• Joseph Anderson

  University of Edinburgh

• Courtney Handman

  University of Texas, Austin

Presentations:

• 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM

  Computers and Robots, Devils and Gods
  Jon Bialecki – University of Edinburgh
• 10:30 AM - 10:45 AM

  Of Monsters and Men: Exploring Extrahumanity in Aboriginal central Australia
  Yasmine Musharbash – UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
• 10:45 AM - 11:00 AM

  Soul searching - in Vanuatu and in anthropology
  Thorgeir S. Kolshus – University of Oslo
• 11:00 AM - 11:15 AM

  Humans of the Astral Plane: How Spiritualists in Australia Talk About “Spirit”
  Matt Tomlinson – Australian National University
• 11:15 AM - 11:30 AM

  Spirit of Pride: the Extra-human Status of Character among Papua New Guinean Pentecostal Migrants in Australia.
  Adam Reed – University of St Andrews
• 11:30 AM - 11:45 AM

  Discussion
  Joseph Anderson – University of Edinburgh
• 11:45 AM - 12:00 PM

  Discussion
  Courtney J. Handman – University of Texas, Austin