Before the ‘New’: Reclaiming Indigenous Relational Ontologies through Linda Hogan’s Memoir The Woman Who Watches Over the World

Year 2025, Volume: 20 Issue: 2, 355 - 370

Nesrin Yavaş

https://doi.org/10.17550/akademikincelemeler.1693034

Abstract

This article critically examines the epistemological limitations of Western new materialist theory by foregrounding Indigenous relational ontologies, with Linda Hogan’s memoir The Woman Who Watches Over the World serving as a focal text. While new materialism has challenged anthropocentric paradigms by recognizing the agency of nonhuman entities, it frequently overlooks longstanding Indigenous philosophies in which land, matter, and spirit are inseparably entangled. This study highlights how Hogan’s narrative embodies a relational worldview where earth, animals, objects, and memory participate in the production of meaning and ethical responsibility. By framing Indigenous materialisms as autonomous theoretical systems rather than cultural supplements, the article redefines matter as sentient, storied, and historically embedded. This perspective not only destabilizes the perceived novelty of Western theory but also proposes a model of human–nonhuman relations grounded in reciprocity, place-based ethics, and spiritual kinship. The article contributes to current debates in environmental humanities and decolonial theory while establishing a foundation for future research on non-Western materialisms, multispecies worldviews, and local ontologies across global contexts.

Keywords

Indigenous Materialisms , Relational Ontology , New Materialism (s) , Epistemic Colonization , Linda Hogan

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