Not having a strong background in Claude Lévi-Strauss or Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, this book was extremely challenging and at many points just didn't make sense to me. I ended up more skimming it than reading every word as it was all largely over my head.

From what I was able to ascertain that I did appreciate was the inversion of anthropology and anthropological practice via what Viveiros de Castro refers to as perspectivism and multinaturalism. These are rooted in the perspective of Indigenous peoples he conducted field work with in so-called Brazil who view all animals and spirits as humans as well. Meaning there are "human humans" and "non-human humans," but who is human varies depending on perspective. For example, a jaguar sees itself as human, but us humans as non-humans, whereas we may see ourselves as humans and the jaguar as non-human. However, all animal and spirit beings are wrapped up in humanity, which raises the point, "What everything is human, the human becomes a wholly other thing."

This perspectivism and multinaturalism leads Viveiros de Castro to reflect on how Indigenous peoples perform their own form of anthropology, including on the anthropologists doing anthropology on them. Because the Indigenous and Occidental frames are so different from one another, the forms of anthropology end up missing each other and misunderstanding each other. Along with the introduction of a third concept, that of "cannibal alterity," Viveiros de Castro ultimately is arguing for a new ontology of anthropology that, through rigorous engagements with Lévi-Strauss and Deleuze and Guattari, forces the Occidental anthropologist to reassess the ground on which they walk, think, write, and inhabit.

At least, that's what I got out of it, though I could be entirely wrong. This isn't a text to pick up unless one is well-versed in the aforementioned authors and passionate about the field of anthropology.