Ontological politics and Latin American local knowledges1
Ivan da Costa Marques (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
When it comes to issues relating knowledge and colonization, one simple albeit challenging
argument made is that, historically compared with other colonizers, Europeans have been
singular in successfully mobilizing its own metaphysics to colonize the planet. If we borrow
John Law’s terms, “Euro-American metaphysics” came to be by far the dominant and sole basis
for establishing reliable knowledge for agreement among nations in planetary scales. (Crosby
1986), (Chatterjee 1986), (Law 2004) Nevertheless, modern sciences are not capable of
carrying on a dialogue except if this dialogue happens in their own terms. In order to disagree
or discuss a scientific fact one needs a laboratory or, better said, a counter-laboratory which
the great majority of people usually lack the resources (or even the interest) to build. (Latour
1987) (Latour 2013)
I would like to talk and hear about lines of flight from the restrictions imposed by modern
science (or its hegemonic way of constructing knowledge if you prefer). I propose to value
dialogical and symmetrical approaches to take the “right to difference” seriously, conferring
respectability to and from the multiplicity of the real. I will present two cases of very different
kinds that throw light on issues that may arise when local and situated Brazilian knowledges
are placed in Euro-American frames of reference and juxtaposed with modern so called
“global”, “universal” and “neutral” knowledges. The first case, which I will deal with succinctly,
involves Jeca Tatu, a popular character in Brazilian literature. He exemplifies how both a
configuration of the local and its contraposition can reinforce the dominant Western frame of
reference. The second case which I shall deal with in a more detailed fashion, shows three
realities that appear when describing a widely spread child nutritional program called
Multimistura. It will tell us about a local (form of) knowledge that has so far resisted the global
and indicate a line of flight from the global frame of reference towards a more dialogical space
where local knowlegges can afford greater respectability.
Chatterjee, P. (1986). Nationalist thought and the colonial world. A Derivative Discourse.
Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
Crosby, A. W. (1986). Ecological imperialism : the biological expansion of Europe, 900-1900.
Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York, Cambridge University Press.
Latour, B. (1987). Science in action : how to follow scientists and engineers through society.
Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.
Latour, B. (2013). An inquiry into modes of existence : an anthropology of the moderns.
Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.
Law, J. (2004). After method : mess in social science research. London ; New York, Routledge.
1
Marques, I. d. C. (forthcoming). Ontological Politics and Latin American Local Knowledges. Beyond
Imported Magic - Essays on Science, Technology, and Society in Latin America. E. Medina, I. d. C.
Marques and C. Holmes. Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press.