Abstract

ALVAREZ VILLARREAL, Lina. BIOPOLITICS, ANTHROPOLOGICAL MACHINE AND IDENTITY: AMERICA AS A FREE SPACE FOR VIOLENCE. Univ. philos. [online]. 2015, vol.32, n.65, pp.107-135. ISSN 0120-5323.  https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.uph32-65.bmai.

This article presents an archaeological analysis of some of the discourses and practices that played a decisive role in the effectuation of the Conquest of America and the establishment of a political order based on a racial prejudice and domination. A political order that was, in consequence, extremely exclusionary and violent. This research is based (i) on the concepts of biopolitics and anthropological machine created by Giorgio Agamben, as well as on the relationship that exists between them and the communities founded on identitarian principles; (ifi) the researches of post-colonial philosophers; and (iii) Carl Schmit's writings on International Law. The analysis of the Aristotelian-Thomistic conception of the human being, the geographical division of the World created from Europe, and the political treaties concluded between the emerging European States during fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, allow proposing the Conquest of America as a paradigmatic case of this form of power that has characterized Western politics: biopolitics.

Keywords : biopolitics; anthropological machine; identitarian principle; Conquest of America; geography.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )