A Colonized Christmas Perception in Triple Aspect: Biome Politics, Yãy hã mĩy, and the Mental Hyperspace of References

A Colonized Christmas Perception in Triple Aspect: Biome Politics, Yãy hã mĩy, and the Mental Hyperspace of References

I live in the Southern Hemisphere, so Christmas often arrives with heat, summer fatigue, end-of-year rush, family logistics, and crowded streets—not snow.
When I say “colonized perception of Christmas,” I’m not attacking Christmas. I’m trying to describe something I can observe in myself:

Christmas can enter my body as a ready-made script—a set of images, words, rituals, and expectations that start guiding my actions before I consciously choose.

To stay consistent, I use my own Triple Aspect references:

1. Politics (Biome): what is necessary to keep life stable inside the biome (sleep, food, safety, territory, belonging).

2. Spirituality (Yãy hã mĩy): a term from the Maxakali people; in my extended use, it describes how a baby/human learns by imitation—forming habits, beliefs, and faith-as-a-support-for-action to use language and other cultural tools.

3. Neuroscience (Alfredo Pereira Jr + Damasian Mind): I combine the Triple-Aspect Monism lens with a Damasian view that mind/consciousness is grounded in the living body and feeling. (PhilPapers)
   And I define consciousness as: movement that perceives itself as being, inside a metabolism that is being continuously produced.

Finally, I use one stable structure: CELL → BODY → RELATION → COMMUNITY → STATE.

CELL — the biome starts as metabolism and rhythm

At the cellular level, life depends on rhythm and regulation: sleep, recovery, stable energy, and predictable cycles. When December becomes overload (late nights, extra stimulation, constant demands), my body drifts toward short-term reward mode.

This is not moral. It’s physiology.

From neuroscience, I lean on interoception: the brain’s reading of internal bodily signals. Modern work maps how interoceptive circuits support regulation across cognitive, emotional, and behavioral levels. (PubMed)
So if my internal regulation is shaken, I become easier to “steer” by external cues.

Biome politics (here): a healthy culture should protect the minimum conditions of life (sleep, food quality, rest, safety), not disrupt them as the “price of belonging.”

BODY — the Damasian anchor and my definition of consciousness

When Christmas cues hit (songs, colors, slogans, shopping visuals), I notice a change in my body: tension, urgency, performative energy.

Here is my core neuro reference:

• Damasio’s line of thought: feeling and the living body are central to consciousness (consciousness is not just “thinking”; it’s rooted in bodily regulation and felt experience). (PhilPapers)

• Interoceptive inference: subjective experience often reflects an integration of top-down expectations with bodily signals. In practice, this means “scripts” can shape what I feel and do. (PubMed)

So, if I don’t return to the body (breathing, hunger, fatigue, jaw tension, posture), Christmas references can become the driver.

My mental hyperspace idea (simple version):
Every repeated Christmas element—word, image, ritual—becomes a reference point. If these reference points dominate, my “movement that perceives itself” moves on rails.

RELATION — where Yãy hã mĩy becomes visible (extended use)

In Brazil and across the Global South, Christmas is deeply relational: family, neighbors, workplace gatherings, WhatsApp groups, “how we should feel,” “how we should show it.”

This is where I apply Yãy hã mĩy (Maxakali) with an extended meaning:
I am a human who learns belonging through imitation. I copy tone, gestures, emotional timing, and later I copy beliefs and “must-do” rules.

That can be healthy (belonging is real). But it becomes colonizing when imitation turns into obligation:

• “I must look happy.”

• “I must buy something.”

• “I must prove I belong.”

At that point, belonging becomes obedience.

COMMUNITY — ritual as either care or display

In community life, I see two kinds of Christmas technology:

1. Christmas as display: comparison, debt pressure, status signaling.

2. Christmas as care: shared cooking, presence, simpler gifts, local mutual aid, inviting the person who would be alone.

Science helps me name why “care rituals” matter: shared experiences and synchrony can strengthen bonding and cohesion, including physiological synchrony across people. ( PMC)

So my political question becomes biome-real:

Does this ritual improve the conditions of life in the territory, or does it extract attention and stability?

STATE — the “reality test” of a colonized perception

At the level of the State, I keep the discussion secular and practical: not “which belief wins,” but which design protects life.

A colonized Christmas perception, for me, is when the public environment systematically pushes:

• overstimulation,

• comparison,

• financial pressure,

• performative belonging.

And social media can amplify this “display layer.” Umbrella reviews show the relationship between social media use and adolescent mental health is complex and context-dependent, but also significant enough to demand serious mitigation strategies—exactly because comparison and social evaluation can become chronic pressures. (ScienceDirect)

My conclusion:
Christmas becomes “colonizing” when it installs a dominant set of references that guide my body and my belonging without my consent—and when it shifts the territory away from the biome needs of life (rest, safety, food, community care).

References (post-2020, aligned to Blog 1)

• Berntson, G. G. & Khalsa, S. S. (2021). Neural Circuits of Interoception (Trends in Neurosciences). (PubMed)

• Allen, M. (2020). Unravelling the Neurobiology of Interoceptive Inference (Trends in Cognitive Sciences). (PubMed)

• Damasio, A. R. (2021). Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious (book). (PhilPapers)

• Pereira Jr., A. (2023). Introdução à Metafísica do Monismo de Triplo Aspecto (ANPOF). (ANPOF)

• Pereira Jr., A. (2023). Article/interview material on Triple-Aspect Monism (SciELO/Trans/Form/Ação PDF). (SciELO)

• Tomashin, A. et al. (2022). Interpersonal Physiological Synchrony Predicts Group Cohesion (Frontiers in Human Neuroscience; PMC full text). ( PMC)

• Chung, V. et al. (2024). Social bonding through shared experiences (Royal Society Open Science). (Royal Society Publishing)

• Sala, A. et al. (2024). Umbrella review on social media use and adolescent mental health/well-being. (ScienceDirect)

• Valkenburg, P. M. et al. (2022). Umbrella review on social media and adolescent mental health (PubMed). (PubMed)