Amazons
Politics of the Forest
Debates
People from different fields invite us to look at the forest from new perspectives that reveal their complexity as political and cultural spaces. Participating in these conversations are Davi Kopenawa, leader of the Yanomami people, Raki Ap, leader of Indigenous West Papuan struggles, the anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, the philosopher Déborah Danowski, the architect and curator Paulo Tavares, the lawyer and writer Philippe Sands, and the jurist and activist Teresa Vicente.
We often imagine the jungle as pristine nature, almost unpopulated and with few traces of culture. This notion, legacy of a colonial and anthropocentric mindset, is far from the reality. The jungle is home to a complex political community, with a mesh of ties among species which, over the centuries, have given rise to elaborate practices and forms of knowledge that have had a profound impact on their environment. Over all these years, Indigenous communities have safeguarded the delicate balance among the different worlds that coexist in the forest, and their stories reveal how understanding and respect among the different planes of existence, including the spiritual sphere, are absolutely for essential for preserving life.
The jungle is also a crucial space of political resistance, where Indigenous peoples are confronting the voracity of global capitalism and fighting on the front lines of the battle against the climate emergency. These ancestral cultures are showing us today that it is necessary to live in harmony with the rhythms of the planet, and also how vital it is to rethink out societies in order to make possible the worlds that are to come.
This activity is part of Amazons
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