Hello, fedinauts. Due to some concerns I have seen here, I want to talk a little about what means to be #human in #indigenous cultures of South American lowlands and how it reveals a starkly different perspective from Western views. I take the risk of oversimplifying the issue, so any questions, corrections, criticisms or expansions are welcome.
#ecology #philosophy #mythology #humanism
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At first sight, these cultures have a more exclusive sense of humanity than Western philosophies. It is common for many ethnic groups to call themselves "people" in their languages, apparently denying the humanity of their neighbors. Only those recognized as "not other" or as kin are considered true people. The neighbors' names are usually taken from animals, and in some cases they are pejorative. As the war cry of the Kumanagoto says: ana karina rote [only we are people].
2/?
For a Westerner it seems a contradiction that at the same time these peoples attribute self-awareness, intelligence, intentionality, table manners, compassion, spoken language and technology to #nonhuman animals, atmospheric phenomena and other beings. What the moderns consider exceptionally human, for indigenous peoples is a shared condition of many beings [potentially, all of them].
This has led to much confusion regarding the native cosmologies and anthropologies.
3/?
BUT! This is important for Amerindian thought: not all beings are human at the same time, in the same way. If not, each species/group sees the world in an analogous but different way. I give an example from my own experience, the wise Yukpa hunters explained to me that the spirits see us as peccaries, that is why they hunt us, a fallen tree is for them a monkey that they hunted, finally they see themselves as humans.
4/?
Another example. When I fell ill with malaria, a Yukpa shaman told me that our blood was beer that mosquitoes fermented to celebrate, "just like us". Each species has a perspective with the same inner world as the human one, but for others it looks different depending on the relationship that one species [or collective] has with another. In the context of ethnology this is called “amerindian #perspectivism ”, term coined by the anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro.
5/?
On another occasion we were deep in the jungle when we heard the cries of a human person and the old man who was with me said that it was the jaguar, who transform into yukpape (lit. human/person). Following this knowledge we can understand that humanity is a center of agency that moves depending on the context and the dominant perspective. The position of the Subject is that of the predator. This is a highly dynamic ontological system and gives rise to a large number of combinations.
6/?
Although the body/species is of utmost importance, in the amerindian context isn't physiological concept. It's not a substance predefined by genes or God, but rather a product of coexistence within a community.
Many myths tell how "our" humans become members of another species/community by living [having sexual intercourse or eating] with them. That ability to shift into a non-human body/perspective is the basis of Amerindian shamanism. Usually invoked to resolve interspecific conflicts.
7/?
There also lies the importance of feather headdresses, paintings and body modifications, so characteristic of indigenous peoples. If the human body is a common substrate for each perspective, it is necessary to find a particular form of "being human" by sublimating the powers of others over one's own body.
8/?
Indigenous perspectivism reveals a sophisticated understanding of intersubjectivity and relationality, where the boundaries between the human and non-human, nature and culture, are fluid and dynamic. This is, of course, radically different from Western dualisms [Subject-object, substance-essence, soul (or mind)-body, etc.] and human exceptionalism.
I think this may be an unrefined summary of the issue, another day we can address other aspects of indigenous cosmopolitics.
9/9
Küpa 🇻🇪 🇵🇸