Journal article
Sentient Forests as Nature, as Myth or as a More Real Shamanic Nature: The Ontological Re-turn
Ethnos
02/28/2026
DOI: 10.1080/00141844.2026.2626392
Abstract
Despite the diversity of debates about the ontological turn, the inward perceptual empiricism that constitutes the main source of non-Western epistemologies - both oral and written - has not yet been fully considered. The helpful case here will be that of the 'sentient forest', which has emerged as a guiding belief in Western countries, with forests and plants increasingly being regarded as sentient, conscious, intelligent, and/or communicative, but present in most cultures through mythical representations and shamanic perceptions. Contrary to the usual 'politically correct' ontological interpretations and their main underlying assumption, inward empiricism shows that shamanic forests are 'more real' than the objective forest, and that the latter are not actually 'out there' but rather an emerging level of the former. An ontological re-turn is proposed that considers ethnographic sources necessarily together with the inner perceptual levels that give rise to 'natures-ontologies-cultures', with more attention to terms like 'perception' and 'ontology'.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Sentient Forests as Nature, as Myth or as a More Real Shamanic Nature: The Ontological Re-turn
- Creators
- Xabier Renteria-Uriarte - University of the Basque CountryRoslyn M. Frank - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Ethnos
- DOI
- 10.1080/00141844.2026.2626392
- ISSN
- 0014-1844
- eISSN
- 1469-588X
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Number of pages
- 14
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 02/28/2026
- Academic Unit
- Spanish and Portuguese
- Record Identifier
- 9985147189502771
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