Indigenous and Popular Thinking in América (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Indigenous and Popular Thinking in América Rocío Quispe-Agnoli Kusch, Rodolfo. Indigenous and Popular Thinking in América. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2010. lxxvii + 209 pp. This book, first published in 1970 in Spanish, is one of the most important works by Argentinean philosopher and anthropologist Rodolfo Kusch, and constitutes a milestone in the conception of Latin American thinking and identity “from within.” It is also the first of Kusch’s works to be translated into English. In Indigenous and Popular Thinking in América (IPTA), the philosopher elaborates the anthropological and philosophical category of estar as one of the characterizing features of indigenous thinking. As he explains, the (Latin) American self is culturally split by ser and estar, and needs to overcome this divide by reconciling both conditions. In this way, Kusch proposes, the (Latin) American self will be able to focus on his own cultural human determination. This reconciliation could be possible by means of what he calls fagocitación, understood in this context as absorption or consumption of the self. At this point, it is important to note the author’s discursive and linguistic choices, especially in his use of Aymara, Quechua, Spanish, and Latin terms for key concepts that are difficult to translate to another language without losing its intended meaning. As María Lugones and Joshua Price, translators of this edition in English, observe, there is an important cluster of key concepts that are examined in their indigenous linguistic context, such as utcatha, pacha, amauta, and kuty, among others. They add to the Spanish and Latin terms that form part of the author’s central reflection on the definition of (Latin) American self: ser, estar, así, ahí, habitat. In their introduction, the translators recognize Kusch’s intentional choice of these terms. Faced, then, with the task of translating into another language and the subsequent distortion of meaning as well as the reduction that a [End Page 667] glossary would imply in this case, Lugones and Price opt for intruding the least into the thinker’s mission. They keep these key terms in their original language, provide translation to English—when available and in parenthesis—and try to keep them embedded in Kusch’s reflection. Likewise, the translators are also aware of the author’s choice of América when naming Latin America while North America is considered and referred to as part of the West and Modernity. Thus Lugones and Price leave América with an é in the English version since this name reflects Kusch’s depiction of the repressed Latin American reality. Finally, we need to be aware of Kusch’s choice to refer to notions such as “American,” “European,” “Indigenous,” and “Western” in an abstract universal sense, as well as his particular way of referring to Modernity as “the West” or “the Science.” In order to understand the breadth of Kusch’s ideas in this book, it is helpful to look at his works before and after the production and publication of this text. In 1953, the author explored the dual character of América and the mestizo consciousness in a series of essays that were published under the title La seducción de la barbarie: análisis herético de un continente mestizo. Almost ten years later, his América profunda (1962) examined the Andean world vision and proposed the necessity of looking carefully at the presence of the “American soul” (alma americana). In this work, Kusch also set the ground for his reflection between “being” (ser) or “being someone” (ser alguien) in the West, which should be understood differently from the indigenous “being standing” (estar). The latter constitutes the basic element of his reflection on the mestizo consciousness that he started to propose in his 1953 book. In 1996, Kusch published two new books whose ideas will surface in IPTA. A concept similar to what Mary Louise Pratt proposed in 1991 as the “contact zone” can be found in his Indios, porteños y dioses. This book showcased his reflection on his travels in Latin America and his explanation about areas or zones of contact between Westerners and Indians. In addition, De la mala vida porteña...