For Emplacement

Mario Blaser is Professor of Anthropology, Archaeology, and Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland, author of Storytelling Globalization from the Chaco and Beyond, and coeditor of A World of Many Worlds, both also published by Duke University Press.

“Mario Blaser offers a new and vibrant conceptual and political vocabulary to approach the problems of our times in relation to indigeneity, environment, and knowledge. Drawing on anthropology, science and technology studies, and political theory, this book helps us escape colonizing forms of thought and keeps space open for alternative forms of being and living. For Emplacement is a bold invitation built on careful thinking, meticulous consideration of ethnographic worlds, and potent writing.” - Andrea Ballestero, author of (A Future History of Water) “In this impressive and important book, Mario Blaser sharpens the conceptual and political stakes of political ontology. He makes a compelling argument for a political orientation toward the ‘small’ in the face of a politics of the global, universal, and transcendent. This ‘small’ politics would help build a pluriverse consisting of a set of emergent and connected yet divergent collectives. Complex, thoughtful, and provocative, For Emplacement will find a wide readership in anthropology, geography, Latin American studies, development studies, and Indigenous studies.” - Bruce Braun, Professor of Geography, University of Minnesota

• Preface  ixIntroduction. Political Ontology and the Problem of Displacement/Emplacement  1Prelude. Small Stories  33Act I. Uncommoning the Territory of the Common Good (on Being Faithful to the Pluriverse)  59Interlude. Big Stories  96Act II. Being Careful with Atiku, Killing Caribou (the Science Question in Cosmopolitics)  124Postlude. Viably Small Stories for the Displaced  158Acknowledgments  185Notes  187Bibliography  211Index