Amerindian mereology: Animism, analogy, and the multiverse

Abstract

This paper develops the assumption that different ontologies go hand in hand with different mereological relations between parts and wholes and between multiplicity and singularity. It explores these relations among Carib-speaking Amerindians. In the process, an ontology that goes beyond the animic inversion of the nature/culture divide and an irreducible difference of perspectives is identified. It shows the importance of analogies between micro- and macro-cosmological orders, which, however, do not form encompassing totalities or an integrated universe. Further, a logic of partial encompassment is identified, commonly going hand in hand with multiple beings and a multiverse of co-existent worlds among Carib-speaking Amerindians.