Multispecies Approaches to the Study of Cacao

Abstract (English)

This document serves as an initial approach to my doctoral research project, which is situated within the field of more-than-human anthropologies. These perspectives challenge human exceptionalism while seeking to construct alternatives for thinking-with, feeling-with, and being-with other multispecies assemblages and swarms. This paper proposes a theoretical-conceptual review centered on multispecies, feminist, and decolonial studies, adopting a critical stance toward eurocentric science and its dualistic epistemology, with the aim of amplifying the voice and agency of Cacao.
Multispecies studies are closely linked to renewed scientific perspectives, allowing anthropologists to question the limitations of anthropocentric thought. This, in turn, presents ethical, political, epistemological, ontological, and conceptual challenges for the sciences, as classical anthropology has long assumed that nothing exists beyond culture, that is, beyond the human (Rozo, 2022).
This paper is based on information collected during exploratory fieldwork, in which I employed participant observation and participant perception (Pink, 2015). During this time, I encountered the “Cacao Ceremony”, a practice that weaves together relational ontologies among the human, non-human, and more-than-human. Today, this ceremony enjoys significant global popularity. In this context, cacao’s vegetal agency (Durand, 2022) manifests through a dual perspective: on the one hand, its plantiness, which defines it as a non-human being, that is, a plant; and on the other, its connection to the spiritual realm, which positions it within the notion of the more-than-human, embodied in what is known as the spirit of cacao.