Catástrofe Ancestral: Existências no Liberalismo Tardio

by Elizabeth A. Povinelli

"Catástrofes ancestrais são passado e presente; continuam nascendo mais do colonialismo e do racismo do que do horizonte do progresso liberal." Em Catástrofe ancestral – e existências no liberalismo tardio a antropóloga Elizabeth A. Povinelli denuncia o mundo ocidental e seu projeto iluminista como responsável pelas crises que hoje colocam a existência de toda a terra em risco. A catástrofe em curso se original na catástrofe ancestral, que se inicia na colonização, que amarrou mundos num processo em que a riqueza e bem-estar de alguns se fez em detrimento da miséria e poluição de outros. Lançando mão do trabalho de Glissant, Deleuze e Guattari, Césaire e Arendt, aliada a sua experiência de campo com povos aborígenes na Austrália, Povinelli focaliza a noção de existência para denunciar a violência colonial capitalista e sua agência destrutiva que construiu mundos a partir de cataclismas. Aqueles que se beneficiam até hoje do deslocamento global de materiais negam sua relação com a degradação à distância, negam a relação entre sua comida saudável, a água potável e o ar limpo que têm acesso com aterros tóxicos de outros lugares. A autora denuncia ainda a perversidade do liberalismo tardio, que reage às demandas de novos movimentos sociais anticoloniais e anticapitalistas extraordinariamente poderosos, reconhecendo apenas superficialmente as bases racistas e paternalistas de suas práticas coloniais, desculpando-se ou instituindo políticas inclusivas ou de cuidados ambientais, sem, no entanto, transformar o modus operandi do sistema, que continua operante. A saída possível para o atual estado de emergência é reconhecer o repertório de saberes e práticas dos povos subjugados que a cultura ocidental absorveu sorrateiramente através do domínio colonial, utilizando-o para seus objetivos extrativistas e expropriatórios e mantendo-o oculto sob os próprios valores.

Genres: Ecology, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Environment

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 10, 2024

About the author

Elizabeth A. Povinelli is Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies at Columbia University where she has also been the Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Law and Culture.

Reviews

[endrju]

A provocative and certainly commendable effort which, however, falls short of what it promises to do. Povinelli's aim is to point to a certain circularity in the use of ontology in contemporary philosophy and theory, especially in what has come to be known as new materialism. And while one might agree with the claim, Povinelli's attempt to surmount the issue, which taken to its logical end means ontology=colonization, simply fails as she's still on the ontological grounds, so to say. One cannot beat ontology with an ontology even if that ontology is "grounded" in non-Western "analytics of existence" to use Povinelli's term. I wonder what would Povinelli say about François Laruelle's project of non-philosophy and how an encounter between Povinelli and Laruelle might faire. Laruelle's challenge to philosophy and ontology appears as much more far reaching, but not without its issues either.

(There are also weird instances of misgendering of both Karen Barad and Judith Butler. No idea why.)

[Burc · Rating 5 out of 5]

"whether any concept matters outside the world from which it comes and toward which it intends to do work. What do we ultimately care about: the ontological status of existence, or the modes of being and substance that a specific commercial engorgement of humans and lands produced and continues to produce?"

I feel like this question captures the essence of this book. A really nice intervention that also helps reframe/clarify the stakes of her intervention in Geontologies.

[Kai · Rating 5 out of 5]

required reading if you use the word "ontology" (or god forbid "ontologies")

[Margaryta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Povinelli has a really interesting and valid critique of ontology that I had not heard of before and that I will not carry with me as I work on topics related to posthumanism and new materialism. I hope this book gets taught in courses or assigned as a reading - there are so many excellent thoughts here that I will want to revisit down the road. Some of the chapters feel a little less overtly connected than others, but the overall book is so strong that it is probably just a matter of personal preference.

[Nils · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty terrible: a long screed against liberalism, filled with leftist invective about the fruit of the poisonous tree, taken Very Literally. (Her theme is “toxic liberalism.”) it’s the 2020s: is liberalism really the main enemy?