Abstract: Ideias para Adiar o Fim do Mundo is a book written by Ailton Krenak, which addresses the relationship between humanity and the environment. The book is divided into two main chapters: “Of Dreams and Earth” and “The Humanity We Think We Are”, where the author explores the importance of a harmonious relationship between human beings and nature, the impact of excessive exploitation and pollution on the degradation of the environment, the current economic model, and the need to rethink the relationship between humanity and the environment.
Keyword: End of the World, Humanity, Indigenous Peoples.
Ideias para Adiar o Fim do Mundo is a book written by Ailton Krenak and published by Companhia das Letras in 2020. Krenak is known for his fight in defense of the rights of indigenous peoples in the National Constituent Assembly of 1987, in addition to being the creator of the Alliance of the Forest Peoples” and having contributed to the creation of the Union of Indigenous Nations (UNI).
Born in Minas Gerais, in the Vale do Rio Doce region, Krenak is an environmentalist and writer who criticizes the conception of humanity as something separate from nature. This is the basis of his complaint about the socio-environmental problems we are facing in the current geological era, the Anthropocene.
In addition to this book, Krenak is the author of other works, such as The Place Where the Earth Rests (2000), Life Is Not Useful (2020), Tomorrow Is Not for Sale (2020), Places of Origin (2021), The System and the Antisystem: Three Essays, Three Worlds in the Same World (2021) and The Ancestral Future (2022). He is also recognized for his contributions to documentaries and the film “Ailton Krenak e o Sonho da Pedra” (2017).
The idea for the book came up in 2017 and 2019, when Krenak was invited by anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castros to give two lectures and an interview in Lisbon, Portugal. The transcripts of these speeches were gathered and divided into three chapters.
In the chapter entitled “The Conception of Humanity and its Relationship with Nature”, Krenak addresses the discussion on the conception of humanity and its relationship with nature. He questions how the idea of humanity was constructed over the past millennia. The author refutes the Eurocentric ideology of the concept of humanity, which defends the supremacy of an “enlightened” humanity over “obscured humanities”.
He criticizes the current model of preservation and sustainability, denouncing the contribution of international agencies such as the UN, the OAS and UNESCO to the alienation of society. The indigenous activist points to the difficulty of creating a biosphere reserve in Brazil as an example of this criticism. According to him, the current model only preserves a part of the territory, and it is this piece of the planet that we need to leave for the next generations.
The environmentalist highlights the resistance of indigenous communities to the oppressive script of “civilization” since their arrival on the American continent. He claims that resistance is a result of these communities’ connection to nature, which inspires them to tell more stories, dance more and teach more about nature than they learned.
In modern times, the author declares that individuals who lived in the countryside and in the forest were expropriated from their lands and taken to the peripheral areas of large cities, to work as labor for the “blender called humanity”. This mischaracterized its identity, to the detriment of a continued civilizing process supported by large corporations.
The link between humanity and nature is the starting point for the second chapter, which deals with the relationship between the State and traditional communities, from the perspective of the Krenak people. In this section, the specialist discusses human impacts on the land and the consequences for cultures that see it as a source of resources. It also reinforces the importance of the concept of belonging and how moving away from places of origin and ancestral identity can prevent the establishment of links between communities.
According to the author, the struggle against the State has been waged since the 1988 Constitution, which recognized the rights of traditional communities. However, the Magna Carta is still ineffective in protecting these rights and safeguarding the way of life of these populations. The main conflict between the original peoples and the State revolves around the claim for a fertile and prosperous land space, capable of meeting the basic needs of present and future generations.
We live in a grotesque phase of capitalism, but I don’t think we are in a crisis that will diminish its potency. Capitalism has produced a change within itself because we have not been able to produce a change outside. It will destroy the world of work as we know it, and it will dispense with the idea of population. That, to me, is capitalism’s next mission: to get rid of at least half of the planet’s population. (Krenak, Dec. 31, 2020. Interview with Carta Capital).
Ailton Krenak in a speech during the Constituent Assembly 1988 I | Image: Carta Capital
According to Krenak, we are being forced to live in a meaningless “cosmic void”, which distances us from nature and makes us believe that humanity and nature are distinct entities, instead of complementary, as traditional communities think.
In the third chapter, the author resumes the discussion about the conception of the human being and argues that we are used to seeing the world and humanity from a single perspective. For Krenak, the fixed idea of the landscape of Earth and humanity is the result of the Anthropocene, and the end of the world is nothing more than an interruption of the state of comfort that we do not want to lose. Faced with this, he asks “why are you so afraid of falling?” and says that we have already fallen several times, but we are still afraid and insecure. The solution, according to him, is to create “parachutes” and criticize the performance of science and the legal system, since many scientists were co-opted by large corporations to work on the “machine” that transforms nature into “merchandise”.
The text of the chapter also addresses the advancement of medicine in the cure of various diseases, but questions the monopoly of knowledge maintained by some laboratories, which anticipate the publication of their discoveries in favor of a manipulated market. According to the author, this situation limits the freedom of humanity. The researcher argues that we coexist with a metaphor of nature and that, for more than 500 years, communities were considered “quasi-human” and excluded from their spaces, which resulted in social inequality and the silencing of their culture.
The purpose of the book, as we have seen, was to present the perspective of indigenous communities on the relationship between their way of life and nature, stimulating reflection on the “sustainability myth” and how large corporations take advantage of this concept to justify the constant damage to nature and impose his vision of humanity. By fulfilling the goal, the work becomes an important theoretical and empirical source for researchers working with issues of sustainability and traditional communities.
However, the book has some limitations, such as the absence of a clear introduction and explicit conclusion. Despite this, the work deserves to be highlighted in academic and political discourse, since, for more than 500 years, the original peoples have struggled against oppression, violence, epidemics and the constant end of the world, since contact with the so-called civilization.
Summary of Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo
Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo
Do sonho e da terra
A humanidade que pensamos ser
Posfácio – Perguntas inquietantes | Eduardo Viveiros de Castro
BAHIANA, Ana Maria. “Transformamos os pobres em consumidores e não em cidadãos, diz Mujica”. BBC News Brasil, 21 dez. 2018. Disponível em: <https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-46624102>. Acesso em: 10 maio 2019.
CASTRO, Eduardo Viveiros de. A inconstância da alma selvagem. São Paulo: Ubu, 2017.
GALEANO, Eduardo. As veias abertas da América Latina. Trad. de Sergio Faraco. São Paulo: L&PM, 2010.
GALEANO, Eduardo. Memória do fogo. Trad. de Eric Nepomuceno. São Paulo: L&PM, 2013.
KOPENAWA, Davi; ALBERT, Bruce. A queda do céu: Palavras de um xamã yanomami. Trad. de Beatriz Perrone-Moisés. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2015.
SANTOS, Boaventura de Sousa. “Para além do pensamento abissal: das linhas globais a uma ecologia de saberes”. Novos Estudos Cebrap. São Paulo, n.79, nov. 2007. Disponível em: <http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0101-33002007000300004>. Acesso em: 10 maio 2019.
CASTRO, Eduardo Viveiros de. Os involuntários da pátria. Conferência de abertura do ciclo Questões indígenas no Teatro Maria Matos, em Lisboa. Disponível em: <https://www.arquivoteatromariamatos.pt/explorar/conferencia-de-eduardo-viveiros-de-castro/>. Acesso em: 10 maio 2019.
AILTON Krenak e o sonho da pedra. Direção e roteiro: Marco Altberg. Produção: Bárbara Gual e Marcelo Goulart. Rio de Janeiro, 2017. 52 min. Documentário.
KRENAK, Ailton. Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2019. 101p. Resenha de: SOUZA, Renato Natan Ferreira. O desastre do Antropoceno. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.3, n.10, mar./abr., 2023. Disponível em <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/o-desastre-do-antropoceno-resenha-de-ideias-para-adiar-o-fim-do-mundo-de-ailton-krenak/>. DOI: 10.29327/254374.3.10-6
Abstract: Ideias para Adiar o Fim do Mundo is a book written by Ailton Krenak, which addresses the relationship between humanity and the environment. The book is divided into two main chapters: “Of Dreams and Earth” and “The Humanity We Think We Are”, where the author explores the importance of a harmonious relationship between human beings and nature, the impact of excessive exploitation and pollution on the degradation of the environment, the current economic model, and the need to rethink the relationship between humanity and the environment.
Keyword: End of the World, Humanity, Indigenous Peoples.
Ideias para Adiar o Fim do Mundo is a book written by Ailton Krenak and published by Companhia das Letras in 2020. Krenak is known for his fight in defense of the rights of indigenous peoples in the National Constituent Assembly of 1987, in addition to being the creator of the Alliance of the Forest Peoples” and having contributed to the creation of the Union of Indigenous Nations (UNI).
Born in Minas Gerais, in the Vale do Rio Doce region, Krenak is an environmentalist and writer who criticizes the conception of humanity as something separate from nature. This is the basis of his complaint about the socio-environmental problems we are facing in the current geological era, the Anthropocene.
In addition to this book, Krenak is the author of other works, such as The Place Where the Earth Rests (2000), Life Is Not Useful (2020), Tomorrow Is Not for Sale (2020), Places of Origin (2021), The System and the Antisystem: Three Essays, Three Worlds in the Same World (2021) and The Ancestral Future (2022). He is also recognized for his contributions to documentaries and the film “Ailton Krenak e o Sonho da Pedra” (2017).
The idea for the book came up in 2017 and 2019, when Krenak was invited by anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castros to give two lectures and an interview in Lisbon, Portugal. The transcripts of these speeches were gathered and divided into three chapters.
In the chapter entitled “The Conception of Humanity and its Relationship with Nature”, Krenak addresses the discussion on the conception of humanity and its relationship with nature. He questions how the idea of humanity was constructed over the past millennia. The author refutes the Eurocentric ideology of the concept of humanity, which defends the supremacy of an “enlightened” humanity over “obscured humanities”.
He criticizes the current model of preservation and sustainability, denouncing the contribution of international agencies such as the UN, the OAS and UNESCO to the alienation of society. The indigenous activist points to the difficulty of creating a biosphere reserve in Brazil as an example of this criticism. According to him, the current model only preserves a part of the territory, and it is this piece of the planet that we need to leave for the next generations.
The environmentalist highlights the resistance of indigenous communities to the oppressive script of “civilization” since their arrival on the American continent. He claims that resistance is a result of these communities’ connection to nature, which inspires them to tell more stories, dance more and teach more about nature than they learned.
In modern times, the author declares that individuals who lived in the countryside and in the forest were expropriated from their lands and taken to the peripheral areas of large cities, to work as labor for the “blender called humanity”. This mischaracterized its identity, to the detriment of a continued civilizing process supported by large corporations.
The link between humanity and nature is the starting point for the second chapter, which deals with the relationship between the State and traditional communities, from the perspective of the Krenak people. In this section, the specialist discusses human impacts on the land and the consequences for cultures that see it as a source of resources. It also reinforces the importance of the concept of belonging and how moving away from places of origin and ancestral identity can prevent the establishment of links between communities.
According to the author, the struggle against the State has been waged since the 1988 Constitution, which recognized the rights of traditional communities. However, the Magna Carta is still ineffective in protecting these rights and safeguarding the way of life of these populations. The main conflict between the original peoples and the State revolves around the claim for a fertile and prosperous land space, capable of meeting the basic needs of present and future generations.
We live in a grotesque phase of capitalism, but I don’t think we are in a crisis that will diminish its potency. Capitalism has produced a change within itself because we have not been able to produce a change outside. It will destroy the world of work as we know it, and it will dispense with the idea of population. That, to me, is capitalism’s next mission: to get rid of at least half of the planet’s population. (Krenak, Dec. 31, 2020. Interview with Carta Capital).
Ailton Krenak in a speech during the Constituent Assembly 1988 I | Image: Carta Capital
According to Krenak, we are being forced to live in a meaningless “cosmic void”, which distances us from nature and makes us believe that humanity and nature are distinct entities, instead of complementary, as traditional communities think.
In the third chapter, the author resumes the discussion about the conception of the human being and argues that we are used to seeing the world and humanity from a single perspective. For Krenak, the fixed idea of the landscape of Earth and humanity is the result of the Anthropocene, and the end of the world is nothing more than an interruption of the state of comfort that we do not want to lose. Faced with this, he asks “why are you so afraid of falling?” and says that we have already fallen several times, but we are still afraid and insecure. The solution, according to him, is to create “parachutes” and criticize the performance of science and the legal system, since many scientists were co-opted by large corporations to work on the “machine” that transforms nature into “merchandise”.
The text of the chapter also addresses the advancement of medicine in the cure of various diseases, but questions the monopoly of knowledge maintained by some laboratories, which anticipate the publication of their discoveries in favor of a manipulated market. According to the author, this situation limits the freedom of humanity. The researcher argues that we coexist with a metaphor of nature and that, for more than 500 years, communities were considered “quasi-human” and excluded from their spaces, which resulted in social inequality and the silencing of their culture.
The purpose of the book, as we have seen, was to present the perspective of indigenous communities on the relationship between their way of life and nature, stimulating reflection on the “sustainability myth” and how large corporations take advantage of this concept to justify the constant damage to nature and impose his vision of humanity. By fulfilling the goal, the work becomes an important theoretical and empirical source for researchers working with issues of sustainability and traditional communities.
However, the book has some limitations, such as the absence of a clear introduction and explicit conclusion. Despite this, the work deserves to be highlighted in academic and political discourse, since, for more than 500 years, the original peoples have struggled against oppression, violence, epidemics and the constant end of the world, since contact with the so-called civilization.
Summary of Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo
Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo
Do sonho e da terra
A humanidade que pensamos ser
Posfácio – Perguntas inquietantes | Eduardo Viveiros de Castro
BAHIANA, Ana Maria. “Transformamos os pobres em consumidores e não em cidadãos, diz Mujica”. BBC News Brasil, 21 dez. 2018. Disponível em: <https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-46624102>. Acesso em: 10 maio 2019.
CASTRO, Eduardo Viveiros de. A inconstância da alma selvagem. São Paulo: Ubu, 2017.
GALEANO, Eduardo. As veias abertas da América Latina. Trad. de Sergio Faraco. São Paulo: L&PM, 2010.
GALEANO, Eduardo. Memória do fogo. Trad. de Eric Nepomuceno. São Paulo: L&PM, 2013.
KOPENAWA, Davi; ALBERT, Bruce. A queda do céu: Palavras de um xamã yanomami. Trad. de Beatriz Perrone-Moisés. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2015.
SANTOS, Boaventura de Sousa. “Para além do pensamento abissal: das linhas globais a uma ecologia de saberes”. Novos Estudos Cebrap. São Paulo, n.79, nov. 2007. Disponível em: <http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0101-33002007000300004>. Acesso em: 10 maio 2019.
CASTRO, Eduardo Viveiros de. Os involuntários da pátria. Conferência de abertura do ciclo Questões indígenas no Teatro Maria Matos, em Lisboa. Disponível em: <https://www.arquivoteatromariamatos.pt/explorar/conferencia-de-eduardo-viveiros-de-castro/>. Acesso em: 10 maio 2019.
AILTON Krenak e o sonho da pedra. Direção e roteiro: Marco Altberg. Produção: Bárbara Gual e Marcelo Goulart. Rio de Janeiro, 2017. 52 min. Documentário.
KRENAK, Ailton. Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2019. 101p. Resenha de: SOUZA, Renato Natan Ferreira. O desastre do Antropoceno. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.3, n.10, mar./abr., 2023. Disponível em <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/o-desastre-do-antropoceno-resenha-de-ideias-para-adiar-o-fim-do-mundo-de-ailton-krenak/>. DOI: 10.29327/254374.3.10-6
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Renato Natan Ferreira Souza holds a bachelor’s degree in Archeology (Uneb), an archaeologist/researcher at the Centro de Arqueologia e Antropologia de Paulo Afonso (CAAPA) and a graduate student in the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Africanos, Povos Indígenas e Culturas Negras da Universidade do Estado da Bahia (PPGEAFIN/Uneb). He published, among other works, Análise Polínica atual de espécies de Fabáceas coletadas no Sítio Arqueológico CAAPA na região de Malhada Grande, Paulo Afonso, Bahia Brasil, os textos de apresentação da Revista Opará: Etnicidades, Movimentos Sociais e Educação – nº14 e 15, the graphic works of Revista Opará: Etnicidades, Movimentos Sociais e Educação – números 11, 12, 13, 14 e 15. Redes sociais: @renato.natan (instagram) @redmagebaekhae (twitter); ID LATES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/4431619841577516; ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2002-7502; E-mail: [email protected].
