Theorizing materiality as cultural discourses

Abstract

Critiques by scholars in Cultural Discourse Studies (henceforth CDS) of the Western-Eurocentrism in mainstream communication and discourse studies have resulted in the scholarship being significantly expansive in its scope and goal, embracing multifarious facets of life (experiences, identities, cultures, ways of knowing and ideologies) from the other non-Western and European vantage points. In order to generate new insights that can deepen and enrich the transcultural urge for egalitarian and liberatory discourse studies, this article will depart from the Western and Eurocentric outlooks, and foregrounds the often suppressed and relegated ways of life in the Eastern contexts. It will theorize the notion of materiality as cultural discourses with a specific reference to the Indonesia’s Borneo Indigenous Dayaknese communities. The article concludes by showcasing the importance of attending to the idea of materiality as vital cultural discourses in reactivating the politics of relational ontology. By doing so, it can throw important light necessary for strengthening the strategies for the reconstruction of the Eastern paradigm projects adumbrated by scholars in the field of discourse studies.

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