Cannibal Metaphysics. The Borders of Post-Structural Anthropology

The book by the outstanding Brazilian anthropologist, professor at the National Museum of Brazil at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro (born 1951), "Cannibal Metaphysics" addresses pressing issues of ethnography and philosophy. Reinterpreting Claude Lévi-Strauss's classical theory of properties and sacrifice, which has significantly influenced modern anthropology, the author offers an original interpretation of the "ethnomathematics" of American Indians, built on the interpretation of concepts such as "perspectivism" and "multinaturalism." Developing the ideas of anthropologists Philippe Descola, Roy Wagner, and Marilyn Strathern, as well as philosophers Bruno Latour, Isabelle Stengers, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari, de Castro concludes that there is a need to create a fundamentally new post-structuralist methodology.