AN41CH26-Ingold ARI 16 August 2012 19:7 Toward an Ecology of Materials∗ Tim Ingold Department of Anthropology, School of Social Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3QY, Scotland, United Kingdom; email:
[email protected] Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2012. 41:427–42 Keywords First published online as a Review in Advance on materiality, embodiment, nonhumans, hylomorphism, things July 2, 2012 The Annual Review of Anthropology is online at Abstract anthro.annualreviews.org Both material culture studies and ecological anthropology are con- This article’s doi: cerned with the material conditions of social and cultural life. Yet despite 10.1146/annurev-anthro-081309-145920 advances in each of these fields that have eroded traditional divisions be- Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2012.41:427-442. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by Washington State University on 12/26/19. For personal use only. Copyright c 2012 by Annual Reviews. tween humanistic and science-based approaches, their respective prac- All rights reserved titioners continue to talk past one another in largely incommensurate 0084-6570/12/1021-0427$20.00 theoretical languages. This review of recent trends in the study of mate- ∗This article is part of a special theme on rial culture finds the reasons for this in (a) a conception of the material Materiality. For a list of other articles in this world and the nonhuman that leaves no space for living organisms, theme, see this volume’s Table of Contents. (b) an emphasis on materiality that prioritizes finished artifacts over the properties of materials, and (c) a conflation of things with objects that stops up the flows of energy and circulations of materials on which life depends.