At the Crossroads of Ontological Paths

A Chinese Nature Reserve as a Laboratory for Diverse Perceptions of the Environment (Hainan Island, China)

Abstract

The «ontological turn» in anthropology challenges the universality of the nature-culture divide and calls for alternative approaches to different perceptions of environments. This article studies how dwellers, administrators, field guides and tourists perform a Chinese nature reserve. By testing the heuristic value of Philippe Descola’s cosmological grid, it explores the ways in which a variety of actors perceive themselves and «others», how they categorise the place and the beings that live in it, and what they do and think others do inside. As a result, it shows how mutual ignorance of these diverging engagements in a common environment gives rise to «ontological conflicts», while new possibilities of coexistence emerge.