#Tuesday Spotlight by Massimo Leone
The talk begins by exploring the dialectics between the human face and the non-human muzzle as foundational semiotic constructs shaping the concept of personhood. By examining their linguistic and cultural articulation across diverse languages, it reveals how the human face is symbolically tied to personhood, while the animal muzzle is relegated to non-personhood. Drawing on Lévinas, Derrida, and Deleuze and Guattari, it critiques this dichotomy and its ethical implications, particularly its role in legitimizing sacrificial practices central to communal identity.
In line with the HIAS focus on “commensality,” the second part examines this dialectics in the context of food, addressing the processes of en-visaging and de-facing and their impact on the perception of sacrifice and community. It highlights how modern societies’ removal of faces from food reflects a diminished recognition of food as a medium of ritual and spiritual exchange, obscuring its connection to nourishment and mortality.
This event is addressed to HIAS Fellows and Tandem Partners.
Image Information
Dreaming Iolanthe, a butter sculpture by Caroline Shawk Brooks, 1876