ABSTRACT
Western understandings of Brazil were, from the start, anchored in the image of the barbaric cannibal. Starting in the early 20th century, Brazilian cultural elites appropriated anthropophagy as part of their search for an original cultural aesthetic. This chapter analyses the relevance of Brazilian anthropophagy – the process whereby Brazilian vanguard artists digested European influences while affirming indigenous cultural roots – to the field of international relations, specifically to the study of South–South cooperation. I propose that anthropophagy opens up methodological possibilities along two fronts. In addition to helping clarify the hybrid forms that arise out of transnational exchanges and encounters, the metaphor of anthropophagy is relevant to addressing issues of researcher positionality, including as they relate to power asymmetries inherent in international cooperation.
