In this article I explore the ontological turn in anthropological theory through three interconnected approaches. First, I situate the academic success of Amerindian ontologies in the context of recent debates on the urgency of addressing the political consequences of the anthropocene. Secondly, I undertake an archaeology of the concept of perspectivism as a central stage of the ontological turn, showing how the sub-discipline of Amerindian ethnology has always had a vocation for Copernican turnings, from the time of Montaigne until today. In conclusion, I argue for a return to aesthetics and poetics as the quintessential domains for exploring how different ontologies can teach us to look at the world differently. To understand the multiple versions of Amerindian relational ontologies we have to be able to perceive the relational character of the aesthetics they reveal. The argument is sustained by a short presentation of Huni Kuin (Cashinahua) aesthetics as revealed in huni meka, ayahuasca song.
RESUMO: O humor grotesco das pantomimas e dos mitos, o humor festivo das brincadeiras e o humor crítico dos excessos em mitos e sketches podem ser lidos como formas de conhecimento nativo sobre o mundo e sobre as relações que mantêm esse mundo interconectado. A exegese nativa da imagética humorística revela valores cruciais relacionados às concepções kaxinawa sobre socialidade e agência ritual. Estamos lidando com discursos icônicos sobre a qualidade das relações entre pessoas e entre pessoas e o mundo animado. O humor do corpo grotesco, que faz dialogarem partes de corpos como forças autônomas, e o humor festivo, cujo riso contamina a moral dos "donos" das substâncias, têm alta eficácia ritual, motivando forças cósmicas a agirem em prol da humanidade. Qual é o saber expresso pelo humor? O humor expressa um conhecimento de como agir sobre o mundo que os protagonistas dos mitos careciam. Nos mitos, os poderosos donos de saberes cruciais à vida eram conquistados e mortos. No ritual, estes mesmos seres são "alegrados" e seduzidos. A agência ritual subverte o tempo mítico do conflito para produzir o tempo histórico, um tempo no qual pessoas são produzidas com base nas qualidades construtivas de seres poderosos, conhecidos por suas capacidades predatórias. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: etnologia, Kaxinawa, humor festivo, humor grotesco, ritual, mito.
After depicting the contemporary scene of Huni Kuin ayahuasca shamanism and artistic agency, I analyze a selection of image-songs from this ritual. The songs unveil the workings of embodied perception and synesthesia, that is, the transductions of bodily sensations and perceptions in vision, rhythm, song and sound. The experience entails a process of other-becoming where to know means to see through the eyes of Other; to be covered with the skin/ornaments of those beings one has consumed and to sing through their voice. This other-becoming is a becoming in a deleuzian sense, which means that the lived experience is situated in-between the space of self and other. In this context the expression “you are what you eat” has specific implications for one’s health and for the acquisition of agentive and perceptive capabilities of other beings. The ritual technique of almost becoming consists of alternatingly producing and undoing temporary transformations through song.
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