ABSTRACT
The third chapter explores the potential of the new materialist and posthumanist paradigm shift for conducting research on vocality beyond the limitations of poststructuralism and the dominance of anthropocentricism. It critically engages with affect theory, neuroscience, and quantum physics and investigates different conceptualizations of non-human agency, and identifies points of convergence and divergence between Indigenous philosophy and posthumanism/new materialism to reconfigure performance processes beyond mind/body dualism and account for the relational dimension of vocality. Indigenous scholars Vine Deloria Jr. and Manulani Aluli-Meyer offer compelling interpretations of quantum physics that foreground the non-separability of materiality and spirituality, followed by Dylan Robinson’s analysis of “doing sovereignty” through the affective politics of Idle No More song-actions, and Dolleen Tisawii'ashii Manning’s critique of new materialist and posthumanist scholars for appropriating Indigenous understandings of the affective potency of material existence. This potent living materiality is also evoked by Indigenous architect Douglas Cardinal, who designed the National Museum of the American Indian for the Smithsonian Institution, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, as well as the En’owkin Center, and who gained life-changing knowledge from a vision quest during which he became fully aware of his interconnectedness to all living things.
