“Why don’t they look at themselves?”: the violent roots of modernity from the perspective of indigenous counter-modernities

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection on the processes of violence of modernity, which dehumanized the native populations of the Americas in different ways, through sciences, mythical religious imaginary and the legal-political orders in each context, contribuiting to the consolidation of a racial political regime whose hegemony remains naturalized in Western societies. The aim was to understand how this scenario has been confronted and challenged throughout history, based on indigenous resistance to be incorporated into this civilizing model and producing their own counter-modernities. The sources were bibliographical and the starting point was the perspective of the political thought and practice of Brazil’s indigenous peoples, combining historical and anthropological readings with the production of current indigenous authors. The relevance of the indigenous retomada was highlighted, an extensive movement of existential rescue, through which they demand new social pacts that include both dehumanized populations and multiple non-human agencies. It was concluded that the West’s urgent need to look at itself in order to understand its catastrophes and crises requires an indigenous contribution, both to recognize the unbeatable contradictions of modernity and to imagine futures and build viable life possibilities. Finally, it is hoped that this reflection will contribute to an agenda for decolonizing methodologies and practices.