CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Abril, Ana |
|---|---|
| Title | Cannibal feminist ethics: Rethinking Self/Other through act(s) of eating |
| Summary | The Derridean carno-phallogocentric system involves a process of subjectivation built on the act of eating animal meat. The sacrificial structure permits the killing of animals yet obscures the existence of this specific type of violence that objectifies the Other. This functioning of Western societies instigates an ontological division between human/animal and positions the male meat-eater individual as the only full subject possible. I propose an intervention on this system by deconstructing Tupinamba cannibal rituals through a close reading of philosophical and anthropological literature as well as a decolonial and feminist remaking of concepts. By considering and theorizing biological insights, the cannibal feminist ethics proposes the reconceptualization of act(s) of eating as productive, collective and relational interactions between Self/Other. The process of subjectivation happens when the Self incorporates the perspective of the Other through the act of eating, according to radical imaginations around Amerindian perspectivism and the cosmologies behind Tupinamba cannibalism. In my thesis, the cannibal acts of eating are deconstructed as human sacrifices and their innovative politics of enmity are highlighted as a means of analyzing the deployment of violence. The kinship which takes place between killer/enemy in Tupinamba cannibalistic rituals and the mourning of the latter can be conceptualized as a recognition of the violence. Therefore, violence becomes a stride toward the final goal of relationality attained through the cannibal act of eating. In this way, the cannibal and their rituals break the colonial imagination around them and appear as innovative sites for rethinking subjectivity, interactions between Self/Other and the hierarchies of human/non-human. |
| Supervisor | Yoon, Hyaesin |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/abril_ana-belen.pdf |
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