Can the subaltern save us

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4448108
AutoresBreny Mendoza (Department of Gender and Women's Studies, California State University, Northridge, CA, USA, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume1
Fascículo1
Páginas109-122
Data de publicação2018-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoTapuya Latin American Science Technology and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2572-9861 • E-ISSN: 2572-9861
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/25729861.2018.1551462
OpenAlexW2910888564
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas14
Referências citadas27

A cursory review of diverse theories (postmodernism, posthumanism, postcolonialism, decolonial theory, and anthropology) that are concerned with the crisis of modernity and ecological destruction reveal not only how moderns often have turned to indigenous cosmologies and ontologies to find resolutions to this crisis, but also how confounding this process of recuperation has been. We observe moderns sometimes trying to appear as saviors of the subalterns because they intuit in the subalterns a revelation so powerful it will prevent the definite destruction of the world, or at least redeem the moderns from the sins of their ancestors. At other times, we find moderns giving a substantive importance to the concepts and ontologies developed by non-moderns as a way to imagine futurity for themselves. Instead of rescuing the subaltern, it is the subaltern that rescues them. There are also cases where indigenous ontologies and cosmologies are utilized in unstated forms as in posthumanism, revealing the colonial relationship to indigenous knowledges that modern theorists often have. This includes postcolonial and decolonial theorists from the south, which is my locus of enunciation. Indigenous intellectuals themselves are committed to rescue their ancestral knowledges to build futurity as they also believe that their cosmologies and ontologies are better suited to solve the problems of modernity. But in the indigenous projects, there are no absolute dividing lines or clear-cut dichotomies between indigenous and modern epistemologies. Here I argue that indigenous peoples have dealt for centuries with modern epistemologies. Indigenous theories must be taken more seriously, but also critically analyzed

Aesthetics · Biology · Colonialism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Indigenous · Modernity · Political science · Politics · Postcolonialism (international relations · Posthumanism · Postmodernism · Sociology · Subaltern · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Ecology · Gender Studies · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law · Philosophy