Christmas in the Global South: how a “script” enters my body (and how I reclaim my sensing without losing belonging)
Christmas in the Global South: how a “script” enters my body (and how I reclaim my sensing without losing belonging)
I live in the Southern Hemisphere, so Christmas usually comes with heat, summer storms, end-of-year fatigue, crowded stores, family logistics, and a thousand WhatsApp messages—not snow.
When I say “colonized perception of Christmas,” I’m not trying to be rebellious. I’m trying to name something ordinary that happens inside me:
A cultural script can enter my body so strongly that it becomes my default map—before I even choose.
To stay consistent, I organize this with my Triple Aspect references:
Politics (Biome): what keeps life stable in the biome (sleep, food, safety, territory, belonging).
Spirituality (Yãy hã mĩy): a term from the Maxakali people; in its original sense it relates to imitating/becoming the animal in a hunting context; in my extended use, it describes how babies/humans learn by imitation, forming habits and beliefs as cultural tools.
Neuroscience (Pereira Jr. + Damasian mind): I connect Triple-Aspect Monism (as a conceptual lens) with a Damasian view that mind and consciousness are grounded in the living body and feeling.
And I use one stable staircase: CELL → BODY → RELATION → COMMUNITY → STATE.
CELL — where the biome begins: rhythm, energy, regulation
In December, my body often loses rhythm: later nights, more stimulation, long errands, less quiet. At the cellular level, that matters because life depends on regulation and energy stability.
Here is the simple mechanism I use to interpret it: if my internal state is unstable, I become more likely to chase quick relief (sugar, scrolling, impulsive purchases, emotional shortcuts).
From neuroscience, interoception is key here—how the brain perceives and regulates internal body states. Modern work highlights how interoceptive circuits support regulation across behavior, cognition, and emotion.
Biome politics (at the cell level): if a culture repeatedly disrupts sleep and metabolic rhythm, it pushes the population toward stress-reactivity. This is not moral failure. It’s a biome design problem.
BODY — my “consciousness as movement” gets guided by external references
When Christmas cues appear—songs, slogans, colors, shopping visuals—I notice my body changing: faster pace, tighter jaw, more “performance energy.”
In my language, consciousness is movement that perceives itself as being, inside a metabolism that is continuously produced. So when my body accelerates, my consciousness becomes a different kind of movement: more reactive, less spacious.
Two scientific anchors help me explain this without mysticism:
Damasio (2021): emphasizes the role of feeling and the living body in consciousness—consciousness isn’t just abstract thinking; it’s deeply tied to bodily life.
Interoceptive inference (Allen, 2020): highlights how the brain integrates internal and external signals with expectations; in practice, a repeated “script” can shape what I feel and how I act.
My “mental hyperspace” framing (simple):
Christmas words/images/rituals become reference points. If those reference points dominate, my movement (my lived consciousness) begins to run on rails.
So my first intervention is not ideological. It’s bodily:
I return to breathing, posture, hunger, fatigue—because in a Damasian view, the body is not decoration; it is the foundation.
RELATION — where Yãy hã mĩy (extended use) becomes visible
Christmas in Brazil (and much of the Global South) is extremely relational: family gatherings, neighborhood noise, work parties, church for some, social media for many.
Here the mechanism is human and simple: I imitate to belong.
That’s why Yãy hã mĩy matters for my framework. The term is Maxakali; in its original sense it relates to imitation/becoming before the hunt, and I use it in an extended way to describe cultural learning by imitation.
In December, I can watch myself doing it:
I imitate the “correct” emotional tone (“be happy now”).
I imitate the “correct” gestures of generosity (sometimes beyond my budget).
I imitate the “correct” narrative (“this must be magical”).
Imitation itself isn’t bad—it’s how humans become human. But it becomes colonizing when it turns into obligatory emotional obedience:
“If I don’t do it the expected way, I don’t belong.”
That’s the moment when belonging becomes pressure instead of care.
COMMUNITY — ritual can be “care technology” or “display technology”
At the community level, Christmas becomes a kind of social technology. I see two versions:
Display Christmas: comparison, debt pressure, status signaling, “proof-of-life” posting.
Care Christmas: shared cooking, presence, inviting someone who would be alone, local mutual aid, simple gifts that don’t create debt.
Science helps me justify why “care rituals” matter: shared experiences and emotional intensity can strengthen social bonding, and research also studies physiological synchrony as a group-level phenomenon linked to cohesion.
So my community-level 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” (no culture war)
At the State level, I try to stay secular and concrete. My question isn’t “whose Christmas wins.” My question is:
What kind of public environment are we designing for bodies and communities?
A colonized perception of Christmas is not just a private feeling—it can be amplified by media systems that intensify comparison and self-presentation pressure. Umbrella review work on adolescent social media use and mental health highlights mixed effect sizes and complexity, but it also clearly frames this as important enough to demand careful research and mitigation—precisely because the social evaluation layer can become chronic.
So my political (biome) conclusion is:
If a cultural season systematically increases overstimulation, comparison, and financial pressure—then it is not neutral. It is shaping bodies, attention, and belonging.
My conclusion (in one sentence)
Christmas becomes colonizing for me when it installs a dominant set of references in my mental hyperspace that guides my movement (my lived consciousness) without my consent—pulling me away from biome needs and real belonging.
Brain Bee research question (what I would test)
How can I operationalize “reference domination” during Christmas—comparing a “display Christmas” versus a “care Christmas”—using simple measures like sleep quality, stress, impulsive buying, and perceived belonging?
References (post-2020, aligned to Blog 2)
Berntson, G. G., & Khalsa, S. S. (2021). Neural Circuits of Interoception.
Allen, M. (2020). Unravelling the Neurobiology of Interoceptive Inference.
Damasio, A. (2021). Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious.
Pereira Jr., A. (2023). Introdução à Metafísica do Monismo de Triplo Aspecto (ANPOF).
Valkenburg, P. M. et al. (2022). Social media use and its impact on adolescent mental health: An umbrella review.
Tomashin, A. et al. (2022). Interpersonal Physiological Synchrony Predicts Group Cohesion.
Chung, V. et al. (2024). Social bonding through shared experiences: the role of emotional intensity.
Maxakali context for Yãy hã mĩy (origin and cultural framing; plus extended-use examples).
Colonización de la percepción en Navidad
Colonization of Perception at Christmas
Colonização da percepção no Natal
Avatares Neurocientíficos de Percepción
Neuroscience Perception Avatars
Avatares Neurocientíficos de Percepção
Tríada de la percepción navideña colonizada
Natal e economia do bioma: sair do dinheiro-dívida e entrar no crédito sem dívida (DREX Cidadão)
Natal Colonizado em Triplo Aspecto: Bioma, Yãy hã mĩy e Hiperespaço Mental
O Grande Conflito#GrandeConflito
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#DeusPátriaFamília
#DeusAcimaDeTodos
#PIX
#DREX
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#Jesus
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