Cannibalism, nobilism and heterogeneity: A Commentary of Los Vencidos, by Guillaume Boccara

This article analyzes Guillaume Boccara's book "Los Vencedores", centering on the conceptual scheme through which the author identifies a specifically Mapuche way of being registered in history. This specific way is that of a "cannibal logic" characterized by the "movement of openness unto the Other" and by the act that actualizes it: " identifying the differences". We will comment of the assumptions of this " logic" attempting to demonstrate that even in spite of its critical distinction with that area of Mapuche historiography associated to the so-called "estudios fronterizos" (front-line studies), Boccara's proposal still fits comfortably within the same conceptual and metaphysical apparatus that limits the heterogeneity of historical and political processes to the encounter of two homogenous entities: the historical homogeneity of the West and the exogenous homogeneity of a counter-historical Other. We conclude by exploring the relationships that the idea of war can establish between this cannibal logic and the nobiliaria thesis of a "race clash", as proposed by Foucault on his analysis of historical and political discourses.

Key Words: Mapuche, politics, cannibal logic, heterogeneity, Race Clash.