The backlash against the decolonization of the intelligentsia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52980/revistaamazonaperuana.vi30.63Keywords:
Cultural anthropology, Amazonian peoples, Piaroa of the Orinoco, VenezuelaAbstract
This article addresses the question of the decolonization of power relations inherent in the history of Western intelligentsia through the anthropology of the ludic and the inspiration of the narrative politics and poetics of Amazonian peoples, particularly the Piaroa of the Venezuelan Orinoco. It explores several narratives from the multiverse of Piaroa cosmology, showing how the creator gods of the people, food, and powerful culinary arts act as grotesque monsters poisoned by their excess of power, dominated by hubris, paranoia, and megalomania. Daily Piaroa life humorously ridicules all tyrants and arises from the challenge placed upon each person—man or woman—to control these powerful "thought forces" unleashed by the gods in times of creation to generate a properly human social existence.
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