Andean Aesthetics and Anticolonial Resistance: A Cosmology of Unsociable Bodies

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Informed by Gloria Anzaldas and Jos Carlos Mariteguis work, as well as by Andean cosmology, Omar Rivera turns to Inka stonework and architecture as an example of a Cosmological Aesthetics. He articulates ways of sensing, feeling and remembering that are attuned to an aesthetic of water, earth and light. On this basis, Rivera brings forth a corporeal orientation that can be inhabited by the oppressed, one that withdraws from predominant modern/Western conceptions of the human. By providing an aesthetic analysis of cosmological sensing, Rivera sets the stage for exploring physical dimensions of anti-colonial resistance, and furthers the Latinx and Latin American tradition of anti-colonial and liberatory philosophy. Seeing aesthetic involvements with the cosmos as a source for embodied modes of resistance, Rivera turns to the work of Mara Lugones and Enrique Dussel in order to make explicit the aesthetic dimensions of their work. Andean Aesthetics and Anticolonial Resistance creates a new dialogue between art historians, artists, and philosophers working on Latin American thought, phenomenology, and hermeneutics. It weaves together a Latin American philosophy that connects pre-Columbian cosmologies with contemporary thinkers. Rivera's original approach introduces us to the living, evolving and aesthetic alternatives to coloniality of power and of knowledge, overhauling current understandings of decolonial theory and opening the tradition in transformative ways.

Reviews

Andean Aesthetics and Anticolonial Resistance will transform how we understand and engage decolonial theory. Rivera brilliantly moves beyond the more standard critical approaches to the impacts of colonialism and deeply engages Andean resistance. This beautifully written book attunes readers to resistant embodiments that exceed colonialism and opens paths to new worlds. * Nancy Tuana, DuPont/Class of 1949 Professor of Philosophy and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Penn State University, USA *
In this pathbreaking work Rivera engages Andean aesthetic thought without nostalgia or the intention of a return to an ideal indigenous past. In turning to the sense of Pacha as Cosmos in Andean thought he opens new possibilities for thinking political and social resistance and liberatory transformation beyond global and Westernizing critique, strategies, and ideological praxis. Riveras book exposes the reader to affective and physical registers of resistance at concrete levels that in its pages begin to open for our time and beyond it. In short, Riveras work is visionary and utopian while unlike any other. * Alejandro A. Vallega, Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Comparative Literature Department, University of Oregon, USA *

Author Bio

Omar Rivera is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Texas A&M University, USA.