The earth-form of life: Nasa thought and the limits of the modern episteme

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Published: Jun 24, 2020
Keywords:
Nasa People, discourse analysis, civilizational change, Foucault

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Arturo Escobar
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Abstract

This article examines a framework constructed by the Nasa indigenous people of Southwest Colombia, centered on the statement of the Liberation of Mother Earth. Taking the Nasa statement as a point of departure, the article establishes a conversation between the Nasa proposal and the discourse analysis and archeology of knowledge developed by Michel Foucault. The detailed reading of the Nasa archive allows us to argue that the notion of the Liberation of Mother Earth –a genuine concept-movement--, may be taken as a powerful principle for political action and design endeavors. This principle also affords clues to understand the task of “weaving life in liberty,” from wherever each person of group happens to be located. Finally, it is argued that the lucid Nasa knowledge points at a civilizational change, from the Man-form of life (anthropocentric modernity) to the Earth-form, based on the radical interdependence of everything that exists.

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How to Cite
Escobar, A. . (2020). The earth-form of life: Nasa thought and the limits of the modern episteme. Heterotopías, 3(5), 1-24. https://revistas.psi.unc.edu.ar/index.php/heterotopias/article/view/29107
Issue
Vol. 3 No. 5 (2020): "Affective Turn and Social Discourses: Criticisms, Representations and Policies"
Section
Articles
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Author Biography

Arturo Escobar, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Arturo Escobar has a PhD in Anthropology and is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), where he received the title of "Kenan Distinguished Teaching Professor of Anthropology". He was an active member of the Modernity/Coloniality Group, together with other Latin American academics such as Enrique Dussel, Walter Mignolo, Aníbal Quijano, Santiago Castro-Gómez and Edgardo Lander. Some of his publications are: The Making of Social Movements in Latin America (1992). Co-published with Sonia Alvarez; La invención del Tercer Mundo, Construcción y deconstrucción del desarrollo (1996). Caracas. Ministry of Popular Power for Culture; Cultures of Politics/Politics of Culture: Re-visioning Latin American Social Movements (1998). Co-edited with Sonia Alvarez and Evelina Dagnino; The End of the Wild. Nature, culture and politics in contemporary anthropology (1999); Beyond the Third World. Globalization and Difference (2005); Thinking-Feeling with the Earth (2014). Medellin. Ediciones Unaula; The Invention of Development (2014). Popayan. Editorial Universidad del Cauca; Autonomy and design. The realization of the communal (2016). Popayan. University of Cauca Publishing House. New edition by the same publisher in 2019; Territorios de diferencia. Place, movements, life, networks (2016). Popayán, Editorial Universidad del Cauca.

aescobar@email.unc.edu

How to Cite

Escobar, A. . (2020). The earth-form of life: Nasa thought and the limits of the modern episteme. Heterotopías, 3(5), 1-24. https://revistas.psi.unc.edu.ar/index.php/heterotopias/article/view/29107

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