The red Atlantic: Travelling debates

By applying the concept of the “Red Atlantic,” partially inspired by that of “the Black Atlantic,” the chapter shows how the mobility and interchange between Europeans and the indigenous populations of the Americas is a quintessential example of “traveling theory.” It discusses diverse cultural and historical materials telling of the transnational flow of ideas around the figure of the Indian and the multifaceted encounters among various linguistic/cultural zones. It is suggested that the dialogue between European and indigenous thought has become part of such varied progressive causes as Jacobin and socialist revolutions, confederation and the separation of powers, class, gender and sexual equality, communal property, ecology, jouissance, anti-productivism, and alter-globalization.