Relative Universalism

Relative universalism is a term developed by Philippe Descola to navigate between cultural particularism and absolute universalism. It acknowledges that while different societies conceptualize human–non-human relations through distinct ontologies, these worldviews can still be compared through patterns of continuity and discontinuity. Rather than positing a single “nature” opposed to diverse “cultures,” relative universalism insists that all societies produce relational schemas that define likeness, difference, and interaction. This framework allows anthropology and allied disciplines to avoid both cultural relativism and ethnocentric universalism. For landscape architecture, relative universalism highlights the importance of engaging design through plural ontological perspectives, while still enabling translation and dialogue across them. It provides a theoretical grounding for rethinking landscape as a multiplicity of naturecultures rather than as a universal backdrop.

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