ABSTRACT
Life in the jungle demands a continuous awareness of the surroundings and openness to opportunity. Liberal life, in contrast, is one where expectations and aspirations operate as the drivers for action, where the maximisation of an individual or collective interest influences behaviour, where an entrepreneurial spirit is expected to lead towards a telos of wealth. Setting expectations becomes the ultimate political goal that will influence the behaviour of individuals and collectives. Issues such as desires and passions, values such as trust, and resistance to capitalist commodification and classification, become clearer when contrasted to the jungle life described, with the case of the Nukak. In liberal regimes life has a value that is both moral and commercial. Liberalism, in its capitalist form assumes life to be a resource that can be fostered and developed. A commodity is a marketable product that does not have its own ontology.
