Uma condição constante de guerra ditava a tônica das relações entre os grupos , habitantes nativos da região da Guanabara, que sobreviveram menos de um século após a chegada dos colonizadores no Brasil. Guerreiros motivados pelo ciclo vital da vingança, entravam em embates corporais intertribais que terminavam, para os vencedores, com um banquete produzido a […]
ABC- A B C
Quijano, Rivera Cusicanqui, and Mbebe all explore the implementation of rigid power structures as mirrors through which individuals are allowed to see themselves. Either in the forcing of a conception of a “History” told as historical chains characterized by a framework of progress (Quijano), by the violent and forceful reorganization of sacred territories in Bolivia […]
for the week ironically titled “theories”
These texts come together as a braid, entangled and loaded with tension. Instrumentalizing human existence (and demise) like puppeteers (Mbembé, 14), the conquerors mentioned in these readings weave bodies and borders, denying the physical pain of tearing at roots. Most touching were the explorations into “body as place” (Mbembé, 28) and the very ways in […]
The Power of Duality in an Age of Globalization
I want to address a thread that runs through all three texts: the connection between dualism and globalization. In “Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America,” Quijano delineates and challenges the logic of Eurocentrism, which has a particular “perspective on knowledge” formalized through “a peculiar articulation between dualism (capital-precapital, Europe-non-Europe, primitive-civilized, traditional-modern, etc.) and a […]
Takiy-thaki
Extending Foucault’s notion of biopolitics and biopower, Achille Mbembe points to the insufficiency of Giorgio Agamben’s theories about homo saccer, bare life, and the paradigm of the state of exception. Mbembe does not resort to an obscure figure from Roman law to locate the paradigm in which juridical right and its exception coexist. In […]
Mascaras y Traducción: Trayectorias de la Hegemonía en Rivera Cusicanqui y Mbembe
Había leído hace un tiempo el gran ensayo de Achille Mbembe donde se acuña el tan necesario concepto de “Necropolítica”. Sin embargo, leerlo de nuevo a la luz del “Principio de Potosí” de Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui fue revelador; la forma y el lenguaje del texto de la última no se parecía en nada a la […]
18. “to think clearly–that is, dangerously”
For this response I would like to consider the following quotation: “In other words, the essential thing here is to see clearly, to think clearly–that is, dangerously–and to answer clearly the innocent first question: what fundamentally is colonization?” (). We’ve read that Augusto Boal, who actualized and embodied Freire’s pedagogy in his “Theatre of the Oppressed”, […]
HOW WE READ IS POLITICAL
“Existir, humanamente, es ‘pronunciar’ el mundo, es transformarlo” (70) says Freire. There are certain texts that demand to be met halfway. They expect movement, shifting, breaking, and recognizing – your voice. In words of Boal, “se destruye la barrera entre protagonista y coros” (12). These texts are often declared obscure, not academic. They demand an […]
Catch Me Blah-ing (About Pedagogies & Practices)
When Mom said, “knowledge is power” I thought she was trying to motivate me. Now I understand – she was warning me. Freire’s POTO discusses how knowledge production can allow students to sink or swim (71), and in order to avoid the latter we must reject alienating, (86) hierarchical teacher-student dynamics and opt for more […]
blogging of the oppressed , by Mira mother of judah
“teatro do oprimido pdf” on google said Ricardo, when I asked him where to find original un-translated copies of the two authors we had assigned for Monday. “do?” “yes, do” I don’t speak Portuguese yet, but in my practice of learning language to make clear what translation blurs and erases in academia, the Universe is […]