An Andean Matrix to Nurture

KawsayUna Matriz Andina para la Crianza del Kawsay

Tirso Gonzales

Indigenous Studies Program

The University of British Columbia

Intnl Seminar, “Cultural Diversity, Food Systems & Traditional Life Strategies

Cusco, Peru, Nov.06.2014

Outline / Resúmen

Introducción

Visiones del Mundo, Sistemas de conocimiento, Epistemologías

Agri-culturas

• Kawsay/ Jaka = La vida toda = Life as a Whole

• Eurocentrismo = Colonización= Colonialidad = Matriz de dominación (Colonialidad del Poder, Colonialidad del Conocimiento)

• Colonialidad del Conocimiento = Investigación Científica

• Epistemologia(s): Teoria(s) del Conocimiento (Holistica; Fragmentada/Sectorial)

• Autonomía(s)

What is Cultural Affirmation?

• The affirmation of Sumaq Kawsay, (“Well Being”) cultural

identity and self-determination according to the Indigenous

Peoples’ Cosmic vision & its association with the territorial

autonomies

• A radical demand for cultural diversity

KThe IAASTD Reports

(www.agassessment.org)

• Global / sub-Global Reports: 400 authors, 52 countries

• US $11 million dollars

• Sub Global Reports:

Central & West Asia & North Africa

East and South Asia & the Pacific

North America & Europe

Sub Saharan Africa

Latin America & the Caribbean

Transition to sustainable / organic / ecological / resilient agriculture

Which way forward?

towards an epistemology

of ANDEAN CULTURAL AFFIRMATION

Building epistemological bridges

http://vimeo.com/anthropocene/shortfilm

Epistemolo-

gical

BRIDGES

FOR

RESPECTFU

L

DIALOGUE

ON AN

EQUAL

FOOTING

Indigenous Autonomy & Self-determination

ECUADOR

COLOMBIA

PERU

BOLIVIA

ARGENTINA

Latin American

Indigenous

Epistemologies

Andean Indigenous

Epistemology

No caminenos separados, dispersos.

Seamos un sólo corazón

Peru: 63 Nations within a Colonial Nation State

Se co ya

Quechua

Quechua

Quechua

Quechua

Quechua

Quechua

Quechua

Jaqaru

TicunaYagua

BoraResígaro Huitoto

OrejónIquito

Arabela

Taushiro

Urarina

Achuar

Huambisa

AguarunaChayahuita

Jebero Chamicuro

Cadoshi

Cocama-cocamilla

Omagua Mayoruna

Capanahua

Shipibo-conibo

Cashibo-cacataibo

AmahuacaCashinahua

Yaminahua

Asháninka

Yanesha Piro

Piro

Campa caquinteNomatsiguenga

Machiguenga

Iñapari

AmahuacaShipibo

Ese ejaHarakmbut

Ayamara

Ayamara

Culina

Total Indigenous

Population: 350 million

Aymara

SEARCHING FOR METHODOLOGIES AND PROTOCOLS FOLLOWED BY ANDEAN INDIGENOUS

ORGANIZATIONS:

PRATEC, AGRUCO & ASOCIACION ANDES

Latitud del Kawsay:Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina (Central Andes)

Life as a whole

La vida toda

Other goals(other actors)

Research(Universities, Think tank

institutions, United Nations)

Business profitability

Indigenous Peasants

State Institutions

Techno-science

Local Knowledge

• Climate Change

• B i o d i v e r s i t y C o n s e r v a t i o n

• Ecosystem Management

• Food Security

• Development / “Buen Vivir” –

Sumaq Kawsay / Suma Jakaña

Stakeholders’ Goals and Cognitive Bases

Adapted from Rengifo 2011

About Place:

• Eurocentrism: Anthropocene, Placelessness

• Ecocentrism: Out of the Anthropocene

• Kawsay: Andes-Pachacentrism-Pachacene

ORIGIN OF MAJOR LOCAL & GLOBAL ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY ANDEAN AMAZONIAN COMMUNITIES’ PERSPECTIVE

GENERALIZED LOSS OF

RESPECT

AMONG HUMANS

TOWARD NATURE

TOWARD DEITIES

WE HAVE TO COME

BACK TO RESPECT

BASIC DATA: PERUVIAN ANDEANAMAZONIAN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES.

• Peru: Indigenous population 7+ million

• Officially grouped in Comunidades Campesinas, (CC) and Comunidades Nativas (CN) = 7,000

Registered & with land titles:

• Comunidades Campesinas, CC. July 2001: 5,827 CC

• Comunidades Nativas, CN. 1,173 CN

RUNAS SALLQA

WACAS / APUS

CHACRA

DIVERSITY

ANDEAN COSMOVISION NURTURER OF

DIVERSITY

On the Knowledge Regenerated by the PRATEC-NACA

Andean Experience:

• World view / Cosmic vision

• Philosophical

• Theoretical

• Methodological

• Paradigm / Approach

HOLISTIC APPROACH TO

• Food sufficiency• Biodiversity Conservation

• Climate Change

• Education

PACHA-CHACRA CENTRIC APPROACH

THROUGH CULTURAL

AFFIRMATION

NURTURING KAWSAY / JAKA

Food Sufficiency from the Andean Community’s Perspective

“Grow everything, in order to eat

everything, among all of us

(Us = human community, nature community,

community of deities and gods)”

8,000 years of Andean-

Amazonian Cultural

Affirmation

Chala

=masl= meters above sea level

or Cordillera

Jalca

or

8 Natural Regions

Precolonial Names

NACAs:

Peru: Location Collective of PRATEC-Nuclei of Andean Cultural Affirmation, NACAs

PERU: High Ecological Diversity:

82 of the planet’s 103 life-zones

COSMOLOGICAL FRAME

Elaborated by Tirso Gonzales 2011 (Sources: Ishizawa et al 2010a,b; Rengifo 2010b)

Community-Based Adaptive Strategies for Climate Change

Territorial Scenarios(8 Natural Regions. 82 of the planet’s 103 life zones)---

Dimensions/Components

Basin’s biocultural landscape

Chacra(productive

activity)

Housing&

food

1. Infrastructure

2. Organizational

3. Rituals & Festivities

4. Dialogue with nature

Research Methodology:

The Cartillas de Saberes

http://www.pratecnet.org/index.php?o

ption=com_content&view=article&id=

61&Itemid=77

PRATEC’s Booklets of Wisdom and Knowledge/Saberes

(Cartillas)

Two Different Cosmovisions

PRATEC recognizes that:

Central to the search for dialogue and exchange between two different cultures is this encounter between different cosmovisions and its implications for intercultural dialogue in general and for the promotion of cultural diversity in particular.

• Impressive Critical Mass.• What has been LASA’s

contribution to strengthen Indigenous Peoples’s livelihoods, cultures, languages, knowledge systems, and selfdetermination?

Euro-American Approaches & Epistemology Use of Imperial Languages