This paper brings into conversation two ontologies that depart from the anthropocentric norm: new materialism, represented here by the US vitalist philosopher Jane Bennett, and the animated cosmology common among Indigenous peoples, as an example of which I take Braiding Sweetgrass by the Potawatomi bryologist Robin Wall Kimmerer. I provide exegeses of both philosophies, with respect in particular to the notion of “animation,” noting that the animated sphere is much more extensive for Bennett than for Kimmerer. I then track Bennett’s shift away from environmental ethics. Finally, I relate differences in philosophy to differences with regard to race and racism, with a detailed discussion of Bennett’s tribute to Walt Whitman, and the genocidal elements within his democratic politics.
Articles by Gareth Dale
Gareth Dale teaches politics at Brunel University. His books include several on the GDR and Eastern Europe, and on the life and work of Karl Polanyi, as well as edited volumes on green growth, international migration, and revolutions in the neoliberal age. His essays have appeared in The Conversation, The Ecologist, Truthout, The Green European Journal, Open Democracy, Spectre, Jacobin, Viewpoint, and International Socialist Review.