Abstract
This article claims the inscription of Viveiros de Castros’ amerindian anthropology at the core of a practical-theory of a permanent decolonization of thinking. The conceptual scheme available in Amerindian perspectivism and multinaturalism, if taken seriously, much more than simply reversing the traditional boundary between nature and culture, proposes to problematize the constitutive asymmetries of each particular point of view. The experience of thought made possible by the anthropology of the Amerindian peoples allows us not simply to rethink the relationship between humans and nonhumans. It rather provides sustenance and support for a criticism of traditional boundaries and obstacles erected by the dogmatic image of philosophical thought. This paper proposes a two-part debate with Amerindian perspectivism theorized by the Brazilian anthropologist. At first, the main outlines of this anthropophilosophy, conceived as a network of relationships, will be exposed. In the second part, we will try to briefly point out some implications of this project towards a radical performative ethics, in which the Amerindian humanism and the shamanic cosmopolitics will be taken into account. If, unlike European thought, humanity is taken by the Amerindians as an element given to all existing individualities, what humanity is it that, paradoxically, must be constantly reaffirmed in its relation to the body, under penalty of perishing in the face of predation’ schema? There is no metaphysical privilege of homo sapiens in the context of the “Amazonian ontology of predation” (which, however, before being an ontology is a radical pragmatics), because where there is intentionality everywhere, the human cannot be unambiguously sure of its condition.
Keywords:
Amerindian perspectivism; Amerindian multinaturalism; Decolonization of thought; Radial performance alterity; Eduardo Viveiros de Castro; Anthropophilosophy; Amazonian ontology of predation