Anthropophagy and sadness: cloning citrus in São Paulo in the Plantationocene era

ABSTRACT

The present text engages the painting Anthropophagy (1929) by Tarsila do Amaral as a performance in overcoming Brazil’s tropical sadness diagnosed by artists, politicians and scientists. While anthropophagy, or ritualized cannibalism, is central to the recent ontological turn promoted by the anthropologist Viveiros de Castro, the historically situated use of the concept as the one tried in this essay suggests its value in writing new histories of science and technology that challenge entrenched divisions between Global North and Global South. The essay details the scientific practices involved in saving São Paulo citrus orchards from the sadness virus through the cloning of Californian oranges. Contrasting with narratives emphasizing how the north imposes its presence in the south, or how the south resists the north, history of science and technology written as history of anthropophagy calls attention to devouring of the north by the south.

KEYWORDS:

• Anthropophagy
• Tarsila do Amaral
• citrus
• São Paulo
• Plantaionocene
• cloning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques, 387.

2. Herkenhoff and Pedrosa, Anthropophagy and Histories of Cannibalism; Gotlib, Tarsila a Modernista; Amaral, Tarsila; d’Alessandro and Perez-Oramas, Tarsila do Amaral; and Söderlund, “Antropofagia”.

3. Castro, Cannibal Metaphysics; Danowski and Castro, Há mundo por vir?; Latour, Face À Gaïa. For a critical perspective on the ontological turn see, for example, Pina-Cabral, World.

4. On the notion of cropscape see, Bray, Hahn, Lourdusamy, and Saraiva, “Cropscapes and History”.

5. Lévi-Strauss, 93.

6. Haraway, “Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene”; For a critical revision of the notion of Anthropocene see, Bonneuil and Fressoz, The Shock of the Anthropocene.

7. Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques; and Prado, Retrato do Brasil.

8. For similar attempts in the European context see Saraiva and Matos, “Technological Nocturne”; Wise, Aesthetics, Industry and Science; and Tresch, Romantic Machine.

9. Andrade, “Cannibalist Manifesto”.

10. Campos, “Da Razão Antropofágica”; Asbury, “Parisienses no Brasil, Brasileiros em Paris”; and Gouveia, The Triumph of Brazilian Modernism.

11. The invention of a nationalist identity for Brazil was a common project of cultural elites aligned with the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas and his Estado Novo (New State) (1937–45). Gouveia, The Triumph of Brazilian Modernism; Dutra, O Ardil Totalitário.

12. Andrade, Manifesto.

13. Amaral, Tarsila.

14. Clarence-Smith and Topik, The Global Coffee Economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

15. Marquese, “Capitalismo, Escravidão e a Economia Cafeeira do Brasil”.

16. See note 13 above.

17. See note 15 above.

18. Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World.

19. Milliet, Roteiro do Café.

20. See note 13 above.

21. For a general overview of citrus production in the São Paulo area see, Hasse, A Laranja no Brasil.

22. On the diversified class structure of landowners in São Paulo hinterland see Font, Coffee and Transformation in São Paulo.

23. Henriques, “Agricultar a Agricultura”; and Ferraro, “A génese da agricultura e da silvicultura moderna no estado de São Paulo”.

24. Andrade, Manual de Citricultura.

25. Sackman, Orange Empire; Vaught, “Factories in the field revisited”; Garcia, A World of Its Own; Henderson, California and the Fictions of Capital; and Saraiva, “Oranges as model organisms for historians”.

26. Andrade, Manual.

27. Saraiva, “Oranges as model organisms”.

28. Vasconcelos, “A Bahianinha de Piracicaba”.

29. Moreira, “Observações sobre a tristeza dos citrus ou podridão das radicelas”.

30. Swingle, “Tristeza Disease of Citrus”.

31. Prado, Retrato; Waldman, “A selva escura da história do Brasil e o seu torrão paulista”.

32. Andrade, Cannibal Manifesto.

33. Moreira and Brieger, “Experiências de Cavalos para Citrus ii”.

34. Salibe, “Production, selection and commercial use of citrus nucellar clones in Brazil”.

35. Boechat, “O colono que virou suco”.