Thinking the place of the Other. Colonialism and cannibal metaphysics

Rodrigo Castro Orellana
Orcid ID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4308-8295
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España
rodrigocastro@filos.ucm.es

Abstract:

This paper examines the experience of alterity in the 16th century Amerindian societies, following Eduardo Viveiros de Castro’s post-structuralist anthropology. This involves developing a cannibal hypothesis as a key to reconceptualize the indigenous world and American history. In this context, this work analyses various aspects of the Indigenous ontological regime: the ritualization of war, the presence of the predatory feature in different cultural manifestations, the representation of enemy in the cannibal act, etcetera. Finally, a conclusion is reached by putting this cannibal metaphysics in front of indigenous essentialism, as a derivation from decolonial thinking. We will put forward a model to help us understand the colonization process as focused in the intensive becoming of bodies, which allows us to posit trans-historic identities.
Keywords: cannibalism, colonialism, decolonial thinking, alterity.