Looking Like the Land: Beauty and Aesthetics in Amazonian Quichua Philosophy and Practice

This article offers an account of Quichua thinking about beauty in the Ecuadorian Amazon: how it is grounded in a philosophical tradition that conceives the world and the self in “perspectivist” and relational terms, and how experiences of beauty play specific roles and attain a particular kind of s...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Reddekop, Jarrad (Author) ; Swanson, Tod D. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Oxford University Press [2017]
In: Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Year: 2017, Volume: 85, Issue: 3, Pages: 682-708
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Ecuador / Quichua / Natural philosophy / Beauty
IxTheo Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
BB Indigenous religions
KBR Latin America
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:This article offers an account of Quichua thinking about beauty in the Ecuadorian Amazon: how it is grounded in a philosophical tradition that conceives the world and the self in “perspectivist” and relational terms, and how experiences of beauty play specific roles and attain a particular kind of sense within that context. In particular, we show how indigenous Quichua ideas about beauty inform a range of everyday practices and are intimately connected to distinct ideas about what it means to live a good or mature life. This maturity involves cultivating the self as a body shared with the land, taking on its styles, and responding empathetically to it. But it also means leaving space for others, respecting the boundaries of privacy that emerge through the differentiation of species and the formation of distinct aesthetic communities within particular territories.
ISSN:1477-4585
Contains:Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfw086