FROM FRAGMENTED KNOWLEDGE TO PLURIVERSAL INTELLIGENCE: TOWARD A NEW EPISTEMIC ORDER IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY

Abstract

The contemporary crisis of knowledge is characterized by increasing fragmentation across disciplines, epistemologies, and cultural frameworks. Anthropology, historically positioned as a discipline concerned with the study of human diversity, finds itself at the center of this epistemic tension. While it has critically engaged with colonial legacies and epistemic asymmetries, it continues to operate largely within frameworks shaped by modern Western paradigms. This article argues that the current global condition requires a transition from fragmented knowledge systems toward what is conceptualized here as pluriversal intelligence—a transdisciplinary epistemic framework capable of integrating multiple ontologies, knowledge systems, and modes of existence. Drawing on complexity theory, decolonial thought, and emerging paradigms in transdisciplinary research, the study develops a theoretical model that reconceptualizes intelligence as a distributed, relational, and multi-scalar phenomenon. The methodology is analytical and conceptual, based on critical synthesis of interdisciplinary literature and the construction of an integrative theoretical framework. The findings propose a new anthropological paradigm that transcends the limitations of disciplinary fragmentation and opens pathways toward a global epistemic reconfiguration.This paper contributes to contemporary debates in anthropology, epistemology, and global knowledge systems by proposing a foundational shift toward pluriversal, integrative, and transformation-oriented modes of inquiry.