Name: Life is not Useful
SKU: 54324582
Price: 305.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Ailton Krenak
ISBN: 9781509554058

Type

Physical Book

Author

Ailton Krenak

Publisher

Polity

Language

English

Pages

Format

Paperback

ISBN13

9781509554058

Edition No.

Synopsis "Life is not Useful "

Indigenous leader and activist Ailton Krenak reminds us that we must awaken from the comatose senselessness we have been immersed in since the beginning of the modern colonial project, where order, progress, development, consumerism, and capitalism have taken over our entire existence, leaving us only very partially alive, and, in fact, almost dead. To awaken from the coma of modernity is, for Krenak, to awaken to the possibility of becoming attuned to “the cosmic sense of life.” He points out that the COVID-19 pandemic affects all so-called “human” lives and that the time is ripe for us all to reflect on and undo the exclusivity and distinction that have characterized the concept of humanity throughout Western modernity.

Ailton Krenak

(Author)

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Ailton Krenak (Itabirinha, Minas Gerais, 1953) is an indigenous leader, philosopher, environmentalist, and Brazilian writer, member of the Krenak people. A key figure in the defense of indigenous rights in Brazil, he actively participated in the Constituent Assembly of 1988 and founded organizations such as the Union of Indigenous Nations and the Alliance of the Peoples of the Forest. In 2023, he became the first indigenous person to join the Brazilian Academy of Letters, occupying chair number 5.

His work, focused on ecology, spirituality, and criticism of the Western civilizational model, includes notable titles such as Ideas to Postpone the End of the World (2019), Life is Not Useful (2020), Ancestral Future (2022), and Places of Origin (2021, co-authored with Yussef Campos). In 2024, he was awarded by France with the National Order of the Legion of Honor for his defense of indigenous peoples and the environment.

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