Between Gaia and Ground: Four Axioms of Existence and the Ancestral Catastrophe of Late Liberalism

by Elizabeth A. Povinelli

In Between Gaia and Ground Elizabeth A. Povinelli theorizes the climatic, environmental, viral, and social catastrophe present as an ancestral catastrophe through which that Indigenous and colonized peoples have been suffering for centuries. In this way, the violence and philosophies the West relies on now threaten the West itself. Engaging with the work of Glissant, Deleuze and Guattari, Césaire, and Arendt, Povinelli highlights four axioms of existence—the entanglement of existence, the unequal distribution of power, the collapse of the event as essential to political thought, and the legacies of racial and colonial histories. She traces these axioms' inspiration in anticolonial struggles against the dispossession and extraction that have ruined the lived conditions for many on the planet. By examining the dynamic and unfolding forms of late liberal violence, Povinelli attends to a vital set of questions about changing environmental conditions, the legacies of violence, and the limits of inherited Western social theory. Between Gaia and Ground also includes a glossary of the keywords and concepts that Povinelli has developed throughout her work.

Genres: Ecology, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Environment

188 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 2, 2021

About the author

Elizabeth A. Povinelli is Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies at Columbia University where she has also been the Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Law and Culture.

Reviews

[endrju]

A provocative and certainly commendable effort which, however, falls short of what it promises to do. Povinelli's aim is to point to a certain circularity in the use of ontology in contemporary philosophy and theory, especially in what has come to be known as new materialism. And while one might agree with the claim, Povinelli's attempt to surmount the issue, which taken to its logical end means ontology=colonization, simply fails as she's still on the ontological grounds, so to say. One cannot beat ontology with an ontology even if that ontology is "grounded" in non-Western "analytics of existence" to use Povinelli's term. I wonder what would Povinelli say about François Laruelle's project of non-philosophy and how an encounter between Povinelli and Laruelle might faire. Laruelle's challenge to philosophy and ontology appears as much more far reaching, but not without its issues either.

(There are also weird instances of misgendering of both Karen Barad and Judith Butler. No idea why.)

[Burc · Rating 5 out of 5]

"whether any concept matters outside the world from which it comes and toward which it intends to do work. What do we ultimately care about: the ontological status of existence, or the modes of being and substance that a specific commercial engorgement of humans and lands produced and continues to produce?"

I feel like this question captures the essence of this book. A really nice intervention that also helps reframe/clarify the stakes of her intervention in Geontologies.

[Kai · Rating 5 out of 5]

required reading if you use the word "ontology" (or god forbid "ontologies")

[Margaryta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Povinelli has a really interesting and valid critique of ontology that I had not heard of before and that I will not carry with me as I work on topics related to posthumanism and new materialism. I hope this book gets taught in courses or assigned as a reading - there are so many excellent thoughts here that I will want to revisit down the road. Some of the chapters feel a little less overtly connected than others, but the overall book is so strong that it is probably just a matter of personal preference.

[Nils · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty terrible: a long screed against liberalism, filled with leftist invective about the fruit of the poisonous tree, taken Very Literally. (Her theme is “toxic liberalism.”) it’s the 2020s: is liberalism really the main enemy?