Finding the Taste of Knowledge: The Orphan in Indigenous Epistemologies

Following the suggestions of my indigenous consultants, that to better understand their theories of knowledge one has to start from myth, I take here their myth, “The origin of education” as the starting point for analyzing the alchemical processes of embodiment in indigenous epistemologies, and I do so in dialogue with information produced through an ethnography of learning, and with other, Western, theories of cognition. The myth relates the story of the “Orphan”, a central character in the People of the Center’s moral and mythical narratives. The Orphan searches for the “taste of knowledge” through a demanding personal quest that is simultaneously a process of self-discovering and self-shaping. The quest involves experimenting with different plants and technical procedures, which are evaluated by the effects produced on the Orphan’s “physical-spiritual body”. Shunning the Cartesian distinction between the physical and the spiritual, the People of the Center’s epistemologies emphasize the poietic processes that link knowledge to the ongoing fabrication, and maintenance, of personal and collective selves, and of the world in which they live. The People of the Center make the relationship between knowledge and well-being explicit: true knowledge shows in the ideal state of generalized well-being, an issue that acquires critical significance in indigenous debates concerning the recreation of authoritative knowledge, and of authority more generally

Soberanía alimentaria y otras soberanías: el valor de los bienes comunes

If the realization of the right to food depends to a large degree on food sovereignty, as it has been recently recognized, this article argues that there is an intimate relationship between food sovereignty, territorial sovereignty, and the right to the commons. Through an ethnographic approach to the role of food in non-dualistic socio-natural constructions the article questions the economicist conceptualization of common goods as resources, and it proposes to see “communities” and “resources” as part of a process of simultaneous construction, and therefore inseparable. Dialoguing with indigenous theorizations of the concept of sovereignty, the article seeks to expand the notion of food sovereignty by which to contribute to a pluralist notion of the right to food.Si la realización del derecho a la alimentación depende en gran medida de la soberanía alimentaria, como ha sido recientemente reconocido, este artículo plantea que existe una relación íntima entre soberanía alimentaria, soberanía territorial y derecho a los bienes comunes. Mediante un estudio etnográfico del papel de la comida en construcciones socionaturales no dualistas, el artículo cuestiona la conceptualización economicista de los bienes comunes como recursos y propone ver “comunidades” y “recursos” como parte de un proceso de construcción simultánea, y por lo tanto inseparables. En diálogo con teorizaciones indígenas del concepto de soberanía, el texto busca expandir el concepto de soberanía alimentaria con el cual contribuir a una noción plural del derecho a la alimentación

Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice Across Andean Worlds

Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice Across Andean WorldsMarisol de la CadenaDurham and London:Duke University Press, 2015. 315 pp

Soberanía alimentaria y otras soberanías: el valor de los bienes comunes

Si la realización del derecho a la alimentación depende en gran medida de la soberanía alimentaria, como ha sido recientemente reconocido, este artículo plantea que existe una relación íntima entre soberanía alimentaria, soberanía territorial y derecho a los bienes comunes. Mediante un estudio etnográfico del papel de la comida en construcciones socionaturales no dualistas, el artículo cuestiona la conceptualización economicista de los bienes comunes como recursos y propone ver “comunidades” y “recursos” como parte de un proceso de construcción simultánea, y por lo tanto inseparables. En diálogo con teorizaciones indígenas del concepto de soberanía, el texto busca expandir el concepto de soberanía alimentaria con el cual contribuir a una noción plural del derecho a la alimentación

Doing Research in an Enchanted World: Lessons from Indigenous Methodologies

Based on prolonged apprenticeship with the indigenous Gente de Centro from Colombian Amazonia, this article discusses their research methodologies and the challenges they pose to ethnographic knowledge. Indigenous methodologies suggest that the modern disenchanted method, with its semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and data collection design, is inadequate to account for a world in which everything speaks and does so unexpectedly. Moreover, indigenous people’s warning to watch over the effects of knowledge means assuming responsibility towards the world that the act of knowing produces or could produce. In doing so, they underline the inseparability of epistemological, ethical, and political dimensions of research. Anthropology must respond adequately to such challenges if it is to contribute to indigenous cultural and political struggles and remain a credible approach to understanding the world. To do so, it must work against method as a data-gathering technique, and let itself be occupied by the cognitive practices of others.Based on prolonged apprenticeship with the indigenous Gente de Centro from Colombian Amazonia, this article discusses their research methodologies and the challenges they pose to ethnographic knowledge. Indigenous methodologies suggest that the modern disenchanted method, with its semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and data collection design, is inadequate to account for a world in which everything speaks and does so unexpectedly. Moreover, indigenous people’s warning to watch over the effects of knowledge means assuming responsibility towards the world that the act of knowing produces or could produce. In doing so, they underline the inseparability of epistemological, ethical, and political dimensions of research. Anthropology must respond adequately to such challenges if it is to contribute to indigenous cultural and political struggles and remain a credible approach to understanding the world. To do so, it must work against method as a data-gathering technique, and let itself be occupied by the cognitive practices of others

Food Sovereignty and Other Sovereignties: The Value of the Commons

Si la realización del derecho a la alimentación depende en gran medida de la soberanía alimentaria, como ha sido recientemente reconocido, este artículo plantea que existe una relación íntima entre soberanía alimentaria, soberanía territorial y derecho a los bienes comunes. Mediante un estudio etnográfico del papel de la comida en construcciones socionaturales no dualistas, el artículo cuestiona la conceptualización economicista de los bienes comunes como recursos y propone ver “comunidades” y “recursos” como parte de un proceso de construcción simultánea, y por lo tanto inseparables. En diálogo con teorizaciones indígenas del concepto de soberanía, el texto busca expandir el concepto de soberanía alimentaria con el cual contribuir a una noción plural del derecho a la alimentación.If the realization of the right to food depends to a large degree on food sovereignty, as it has been recently recognized, this article argues that there is an intimate relationship between food sovereignty, territorial sovereignty, and the right to the commons. Through an ethnographic approach to the role of food in non-dualistic socio-natural constructions the article questions the economicist conceptualization of common goods as resources, and it proposes to see “communities” and “resources” as part of a process of simultaneous construction, and therefore inseparable. Dialoguing with indigenous theorizations of the concept of sovereignty, the article seeks to expand the notion of food sovereignty by which to contribute to a pluralist notion of the right to food

Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice Across Andean Worlds

Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice Across Andean WorldsMarisol de la CadenaDurham and London:Duke University Press, 2015. 315 pp