Antropofagia cultural y tecnología

To the avant-garde, both in industrialized nations and those in Latin America, technological innovations are interpreted ambiguously: as a means of enriching artistic production or as threats to creativity. Te situation is even more complex for the Latin American avantgarde, considering that technological modernization is an import from the hegemonic powers of the north. In light of this problem, Mário de Andrade and Oswald de Andrade, members of the Brazilian avant-garde, present two very diferent alternatives to face the threat of alienating technology: the skepticism of Mário de Andrade contrasts with the optimism of Oswald de Andrade in the Manifesto Antropófago (Cannibal Manifesto). In this paper we examine the cultural, political, and religious implications of the concept of cannibalism on which the optimism of Oswald de Andrade is founded. To him, the cannibalism practiced by the "technicized barbarian" or by the "technicized natural man" signifes the humanization of technology, allows the liberation of its creative potential, still repressed in the industrialized nations themselves, and makes Latin America, and especially Brazil, a power for cultural renewal that is valid for all of humanit