How can we begin to consider what we have begun to materialize in class as a heterogeneous “we”? This week’s readings really spoke to me as they attempted to bring some manifestations of this “we” into presence.
Boaventura de Sousa Santos begins his book with a manifesto –and minifesto– against epistemecide (side note: I found this strategy of materializing/performing the counterpoint structure extremely effective but also difficult to read [in a productive way]– I felt a constant push and pull effect throughout). He emphasizes how we will need to “be with” in order to reach a true state of solidarity, “knowing with, understanding, facilitating, sharing, and walking alongside” (ix). All of the actions outlined emphasize a collective we and relationships of responsibility; here, the I only emerges to be with another. If we follow this conceptualization of solidarity, as “the recognition of the other both as an equal, whenever difference makes him or her inferior, and as different, whenever equality jeopardizes his or her identity” (156), we can perceive the need not to erase the Other, or the need to treat each other as equals while respecting our differences– I think that this is one way that de Sousa Santos reaches a heterogeneous “we,” or what he may call a radical copresence (191). Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui reaches further and identifies the site of difference as also the site of complementarity. Rivera Cusicanqui describes one part of chi’ixi as the “parallel coexistence of multiple cultural differences that do not extinguish but instead antagonize and complement each other” (105). From here, we can trace the emergence of a hybridity that incorporates, instead of erases, difference.
Another point of coexistence: between us and our world. De Sousa Santos explains that “our knowledge flies at low altitude because it is stuck to the body. We feel-think and feelact” (12). Here, he brings the body, “feeling,” both into thinking –epistemology– and acting –action–. I think one of the most beautiful parts about indigenous thought is its emphasis on the relationship between our bodies with our surroundings– a fact that is lost or de-emphasized in our world today that privileges the individual “I.” Juan López Intzín teaches us about Sp’ijilal O’tan, a “concrete mode of community life––a way of being in and with the cosmos” (7). In her book Decolonizing Methodologies, Linda Tuhiwai Smith describes a similar way of living, that “a human person does not stand alone, but shares with other animate and, in the Western sense, ‘inanimate’ beings, a relationship based on a shared ‘essence’ of life” (77). That a Mayan and Māori scholar both emphasize this shared coexistence based on a relationality between us and our world speaks to the importance of this reality for indigenous peoples and how much we have to learn from them. I am reminded of the time when, while studying abroad in Sydney, our class visited the Blue Mountains, traditional home of the Gundungurra and Darug peoples. We were lucky to have a guide from the Aboriginal community who explained to us one belief regarding the earth’s ties to reproduction (quoting from my notes below).
It was said that the people believed that the bushes, trees, and plants in the mountains were totems, and a woman would conceive upon interaction with a certain one. After birth, the child would be tied to its totem for the rest of its life, and was responsible for maintaining that particular bush, tree, or plant. Failure to do so would directly affect the child’s own well-being.
I wanted to share this recollection because for me, it represents the concrete ties that indigenous peoples believe exist between the “human” and “nonhuman” in life. I am grateful to this week’s readings for reminding me that when considering questions of coexistence, to not only respect difference, but to work towards creating a “homeland for everyone” (Rivera Cusicanqui 106)– and everything.
Tuhiwai Smith, Linda. "Chapters 1-3" Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 20-79. London & New York: Zed Books, 2012. López Intzín, Juan. Talk New York. 5 Jan 2018. Rivera Cusicanqui, Silvia. "Ch’ixinakax utxiwa: A Reflection on the Practices and Discourses of Decolonization." South Atlantic Quarterly 111. no. 1: 2012. Accessed 12 Oct 2018. de Sousa Santos, Boaventura. Epistemologies of the South: Justice against Epistemicide. Abingdon & New York: Routledge, 2014.