Pina-Cabral, Joao2023-12-182023-12-182023Pina Cabral, J. (2023). Minhoto counterpoints: On metaphysical pluralism and social emergence. In Palmié, S. (Ed.), Fernando Ortiz: Caribbean and Mediterranean Counterpoints, pp. 397-416. Chicago: Hau Books.978-1-912808-92-2http://hdl.handle.net/10451/61417In his classic book El contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y del azúcar ( [1940] 2002), Fernando Ortiz shows how two different plants and the products they yield can be at the base of two distinct forms of life. The fascinating revelation in his essay is how these two products (tobacco and sugar), which are central elements in the emergence of consumer society at the global level, give rise in their local mode of occurrence in Cuba to distinct social environments. He outlines the complex relation between the nature of the plants, the nature of the products, the nature of the social relations of production, and the control of the means of production. These, then, come to congeal over time into recognizable traditions of human experience.engbook part