Theorizing the Anthropology of Belief: Magic, Conspiracies, and Misinformation

This book explores both scientific and humanistic theoretical traditions in anthropology through the lens of ontology.

The first part of the book examines different methods for generating valid anthropological knowledge and proposes a shift in current consensus. Drawing on Western scholars of antiquity and the medieval period and moving away from 20th-century theorists, it argues that we must first make ontological assumptions about the kinds of things that can exist (or not) before we can t...