Um ano entre os humanos: Ricardo Aleixo e a etnografia do humanismo

Abstract

The paper proposes a reading of the poem “O peixe não segura a mão de ninguém”, published by Ricardo Aleixo in the volume Modelos vivos (2010). Since the poem is concerned with the taxonomy of living beings, the discussion examines the category of the human and its dependence on a hierarchy of beings, particularly with regard to racism, finding in this poem and others by Aleixo a critical appreciation of humanism. The paper ends with readings of three texts – by Sylvia Wynter, Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, and Kate Manne – that, in different ways, pressure humanist thought, especially the hypotheses that the exclusion of the other from the category of the human is a necessary condition for the practice of violence and that, therefore, inclusion in humanity would be an indispensable and reliable step towards the end of racist violence.