THE OBJECTIVE REALITY OF UTUPË AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO MODERN EPISTEMOLOGICAL SKEPTICISM

Abstract

This essay addresses the Yanomami philosophy, presented in the work The falling sky, based on the concept of utupë, translated by researchers as image. For many commentators, such concept is the key to understanding Yanomami cosmo-ontology. This paper argues for the originality of utupë when compared to the Western paradigm of representation, for its distinction from the Platonic Idea, and for its ontological and epistemological fecundity. From the ontological point of view, this essay exposes the essence or true interior character of beings embraced by utupë, as well as their eternity and universality. Regarding epistemology, the study highlights utupë as the main epistemic source of Yanomami shamanism and articulates a bold research hypothesis: supernatural intuition, a mode of knowledge through direct apprehension of utupë, may be an overcoming of the ontognoseological fracture underlying the subject-object opposition and a response to the ever-uncomfortable problem of epistemological skepticism.