The New Science of the Enchanted Universe: An Anthropology of Most of Humanity, by Marshall Sahlins

I n the final years of his life, before his death in April 2021, Marshall Sahlins remained unsatisfied with the state of the discipline of anthropology.To address this situation, he set out to write a three-part magnum opus.As he explains in the preface to The New Science of the Enchanted Universe, this volume was to be the first in the series, setting out the ontological stakes: most of the planet, he argues, still lives in an immanent "regime" where the divine is intrinsic and constitutive to all human affairs.Yet, with a mix of hubris and condescension, most anthropology today studies those peoples with transcendentalist, disenchanted categories, understanding their cultures as a caricature of Euro-American worlds.Sahlins' project, therefore, was to lay the groundwork for a revolution in the discipline.His intent was to write a second volume on "Enchanted Economics," and a third and final volume on "Cosmic Politics," but he passed away as he was putting the very final touches on the first contribution.