Research 4.0 and the ontological turn: Implications for researching the radical alterity of witches’ familiars in the twenty-first century

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dc.contributor.authorNhemachena, Artwell
dc.date.accessioned2025-05-14T07:42:15Z
dc.date.available2025-05-14T07:42:15Z
dc.date.issued2025
dc.descriptionThis paper argues that for researchers to access and immerse themselves in the umwelt (or subjectivities) of nonhuman animals they have to become animals. Similarly, for researchers to access and immerse themselves in the world of spirits they have to become spirits, and for researchers to access and immerse themselves in the world of witches’ familiars they have to become witches’ familiars so that they understand matters from the emic positions of each world
dc.description.abstractDrawing on the term ‘Research 4.0’ to describe research that relies on twenty-firstcentury convergent technologies that are defining industry 4.0, including human sensory enhancements, this paper interrogates the ontological turn to interface spirituality and technology. Drawing on fieldwork in Zimbabwe, this paper contends that Research 4.0 enhances relational fieldwork, which is an aspect of the ontological turn, but it cautions that African ontologies should not be mistaken for relational ontologies that presuppose that humans and nonhumans are on the same ontological plane. The paper contends that with the human enhancements that come with Research 4.0 it would be possible to consider research on both human subjectivities and nonhuman umwelts, including those of animal familiars. And when humans begin to share genomes of nonhuman witches’ familiars, in chimera-hood, it becomes possible to study the visible and invisible of quantum anthropology in ways that obviate the pitfalls of the speculative turn
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340331
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11070/3994
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherBrill
dc.subjectResearch
dc.subjectOntology
dc.subjectTechnology
dc.subjectAnthropology
dc.subjectEnhancements
dc.subjectWitchcraft
dc.subjectNamibia
dc.subjectUniversity of Namibia
dc.subjectAnthropology of religion
dc.subjectReligious studies
dc.subjectReligion
dc.subjectAfrican studies
dc.subjectSociology of religion
dc.subjectHistory of religion
dc.titleResearch 4.0 and the ontological turn: Implications for researching the radical alterity of witches’ familiars in the twenty-first century
dc.typeArticle
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