The article broadens the concepts of Ecological Anthropology by criticizing the notions of object and network, and - by its extension - the Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Challenging the established notion of 'object', it proposes the return of the notion of 'thing', porous and fluid, permeated by vital flows, integrated into the dynamics of life and of the environment. Hereafter the Actor-Network Theory (of Latour, Callon and Law) is criticized for maintaining and reproducing a metaphysical division between subjects and objects (assigning to these a fetishized agency) and ignoring the unequal distribution of flows and directions along the network. In a discussion inspired by Heidegger and Deleuze, the article proposes an alternative idea of 'mesh' (meshwork) to think about the material culture and the communication relations, integration and flows among things.
actor-network theory; ecological anthropology; material culture; meshwork