Contribution short abstract:

The paper proposes “stepping back” – understood as metaphor and skilled and practised movement – as a concept to address how one might engage in more-than-human socialities by taking distance. It proposes examples from two ethnographic fieldsites in the mountains of Taiwan and Switzerland.

Contribution long abstract:

The paper proposes “stepping back” – understood both as metaphor, and as skilled and practised movement – as a concept to explore certain forms of more-than-human socialities. It is inspired by ethnographic fieldwork among the Paiwan Indigenous people of Taiwan and ways of relating to creatures and forces in their mountain territories by removing oneself from their presence. It is further explored in relation to fieldwork among dry stone masons in the mountains of Switzerland, where, in intensively cultivated landscapes, dry stone walls offer havens for diverse species – but only once the walls are allowed to take on a life of their own, away from the direct presence of humans. Between human absence, exploitative presence, and active caring for other-than-human beings, the middle ground is learning to step back.

With reference to moments from the fieldwork, the paper gives shape to the concept by proposing four of its features. Stepping back is not absence or disengagement; stepping back is embodied; one steps back also from knowing; stepping back is caring by withdrawing from relations of dependence. I go on to reflect on the use and application of the concept: how as scholars we can be attentive to diverse forms of stepping back; how we might ourselves take distance from knowing other beings; and how, by taking backward steps in our research, we might opt to refrain from talking for other beings, allowing for their ontological self-determination.