Pluribiological Cosmopolitanism and More-than-Human Societies

Abstract

In this essay, I discuss the notions of multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism from an interspecies perspective. I propose the concept of "pluribiologism" as an alternative to Western multiculturalism and to the multinaturalism that anthropologists such as Eduardo Viveiros de Castro identify in the Amerindian peoples of the Amazon. Pluribiologism is the basis for interspecies societies and for the concept of the rights of nature, which has been developed and introduced into the legal systems of many Amazonian countries. I offer examples of the rights of nature and of its consequences within nation-states. In the final section of the essay, I outline the notion of a pluribiological cosmopolitanism from an interspecies perspective and suggest ways for humans to establish peaceful relations with more-than-human beings.