ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how and when empathy is experienced by or made relevant for Amazonian Ese Eja when involved in encounters with non-human others. Drawing on a broad range of disciplines – anthropology, philosophy, cognition studies, neuroscience and sports science – the chapter focuses on extraordinary moments of empathy that shape ‘the rush’ of exceptional and incendiary instances that emerge from encounters between humans and radical others in communities, forests and dreams. This analysis is grounded in ethnographic research on Ese Eja experiences and attacks by animal predators in a variety of contexts. Empathy – be it cognitive, affective or somatic – does not exist in isolation from other capacities. It is entangled within and amidst selves and others, and emerges in places and settings and within moments and times that are particular to people, places and context. Radical otherness, like empathy, is variably situated and positioned within Ese Eja histories and ontologies and can move back and forth.
