Mestizaje, transculturation, anthropophagy, and the lower senses

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mestizaje, transculturation, and anthropophagy were among the most widespread terms used to refer to Latin American culture during the twentieth century. This article analyses how each of these terms emerges linked to one of the so-called lower senses (touch, smell, and taste). The recognition of a mestizo culture was based on the distinction between tactile and visual experiences; the formulation of the term transculturation emerges from the olfactory and gustatory experiences of sugar and tobacco; and the proposal of the anthropophagous movement emerges from a shared experience of savoring. In this article we propose that the affiliation of these terms with each of the “lower” senses is not a coincidence, but a reaction to the sensory hierarchies that underpin colonialism. Analyzing the senses’ role in these terms’ emergence will allow us to unveil a sensory dimension through which a generation of authors felt and valued a “Latin American culture.”