The narratives about the reality of the pandemic have become so dense that I feel unable to make a moderately structured analysis of the effects that everything that is happening will have. I have exposed myself to too many informative and analytical stimuli that raise arguments in the context of the pandemic on various topics: the economy, bioethics, health systems, the impact of quarantine on mental health, structural inequality and its consequences and even interesting analysis on the use of fake news. The discussions on whether the effects of this pandemic will declare the end of capitalism or its rebirth with greater force occupy a good part of the discussions that are taking place in different virtual circles of analysis. I confess that I lack elements to draw conclusions that can guide me in the midst of the rain of arguments and then generate a diagnosis that allows me to even think about taking more or less defined positions. In the midst of all this content, I am particularly interested in the effects and responses that are being generated by indigenous peoples in the face of the pandemic. In search of this information, I also came across a particular but already known phenomenon: in different virtual spaces, the knowledge about the body and health that has been generated from indigenous peoples is narrated as possible alternatives to face and even “cure” covid -19 to extremes of people explaining the rituals by which "Toltec science" can create a kind of protective shield against the coronavirus. On the other hand, as an easily predictable reaction, there are the disqualifications that suggest that indigenous peoples' knowledge of the body and health is completely useless, typical of credulous and ignorant people, and that only scientific knowledge can cope. to the pandemic.
These discussions are certainly not new, and they remind me of the constant impossibility of translating between different knowledge and validation systems. The Mixe system of production and socialization of knowledge has its own spaces and mechanisms, just as the system of production of scientific knowledge has its own spaces and social mechanisms of production, it is carried out in certain languages, it is validated through a peer evaluation system , it is produced in certain institutions, it is validated with prizes and publications in specialized magazines; All this does not escape defined historical conditions, ethical questions, or a specific economic, social and cultural system. The scandal that sparked the statement by French doctors about the idea of testing the covid-19 vaccine on the African continent makes us re-ask questions about the historical relationship between colonialism and scientific production, to name one example. How much scientific knowledge has not been generated about colonial exploitation? Science as a knowledge generation system is one of the many that exist in the world and, like the Mixe system of knowledge generation, it is subject to the history, economy and cultural and social dynamics of the contexts in those that develops. The biologist César Carrillo Trueba has explained that, from the western tradition, the relationship with other knowledge generation systems can be established from three possible approaches: through contempt, through idealization or through validation. Open contempt is easily detectable, I would say that I am almost accustomed to the system of Mixe knowledge about the body and the world being discursively homologated to simple quackery or ignorance. On the other hand, Carrillo Trueba makes evident how idealization is the other side of the coin of contempt, from this position a search is made for essential wisdom in the knowledge systems of indigenous peoples that are opposed to evil western science while that the traditional medicine of our communities is presented as pure, primitive and natural knowledge, thus removing all historicity and complexity. Idealizing positions only reinforce the idea of the "good savage" wise and, in many cases, generate dynamics of extractivism and cultural misappropriation.
In addition to contempt and idealization, validation strikes me as one of the most dangerous mechanisms, whether imperceptible or apparently well-intentioned. Carrillo Trueba explains how certain knowledge of other traditions is validated by fragmenting the entire system and only accepting part of that knowledge as valid. Validation is a complex phenomenon that I will not replicate here and that Carrillo Test has explained very well, I would rather like to focus on the linguistic operation that seems to me an important part of validation, the act of naming. While a friend explained in a forum the operation of certain herbs to cure fever in the Mixe tradition, a teacher interrupted him saying that this was science, "Mixe science" he said proudly. "It is not science and it is good that it is not" I thought to answer. The Mixe system of knowledge generation does not work socially like the scientific system, we do not have indexed journals or specialized awards, no one counts how many times an article is cited to measure its impact, nor do you have to negotiate with companies to finance specific research, to name a few elements . Validation operates from linguistic recognition when naming, and thus accepting, as "science", knowledge that has been generated in a different system. This recognition has an implicit idea, that scientific knowledge is superior in essence and that to recognize as science knowledge generated in culturally different systems is to elevate them of rank. Calling the knowledge generated within a different system “science” implies hierarchizing the knowledge systems placing western science in the most prominent place. The validation shows how the West refuses to occupy its place in the world of the diversity of knowledge systems in an egalitarian way, at least narratively speaking to begin with.
This same operation of validating from the name happens with other phenomena. In the world there are diverse and multiple women's movements, each women's struggle corresponds to their contexts, challenges and needs, each movement presents its own priority demands or desires and these are raised and discussed in multiple languages that contrast with each other. In some cases a priority that arises may be the recognition of women as owners of communal land, in another case it may be the decriminalization of abortion or in another case, as explained by the K'iche 'political scientist Gladys Tzul in an extraordinary interview, the wishes of women can focus on the possibility of reading and interpreting the Quran in a female key. The priorities of each of the women's struggles are set differently. Validation also operates on the diversity of the women's movement when all women's struggles are called feminism. The struggle of the women of my community whose main demand at the moment is access to a fundamental community good such as the spring from which we have always drunk is not feminism and it is good that it is not, our struggle has not watered the feminism texts has not been organized by waves. This in no way should be read as an anti-feminist stance. It is about recognizing that, just as science is a particular knowledge system among the different knowledge systems in the world, feminism is one of the many women's movements that exist in the world and that in order to dialogue in equality it is necessary start from the act of naming. Validation from the name shows a power relationship: one party has the ability to legitimize the validity of the other party through a label, in its own system.
This validation also occurs in other apparently distant phenomena. All the languages of the world exercise the poetic function of language, the everyday language in certain circumstances takes other forms and creates an extraordinary linguistic time where words create an aesthetic effect. In the Mixe tradition, the poetic function is related to the ritual and it is at that moment that it is preponderantly exercised. Literature is often referred to as these manifestations of the poetic, thus exercising, once again, an act of linguistic validation. Literature is a specific manifestation of the poetic function of language that is inscribed within a system determining with publishers, objects called books that are sold in stores, rituals such as book presentations or validation systems such as literary awards and scholarships. creation. The Mixe poetic tradition has its own systems of creation and functioning. Tseltal shamanic songs, Mixe prayers, Zapotec Libanas are part of non-literary poetic traditions. In the world of poetic manifestations, literature is only one concrete example from which it is not necessary to validate the others.
It must also be considered that the different knowledge systems of the world, the different movements of women and the different poetic manifestations influence each other, are systems open to interaction; However, we cannot ignore the colonialism that runs through these relationships and that explains the phenomena of validation from the name. Not all knowledge generation systems are science, not all women's movements are feminism, nor is any poetic manifestation literature. This validation that hides the diversity of ways of being and doing is not necessary. To attempt a balanced approach, it is important to insert the western tradition within the multiplicity of the world: science as one of the knowledge generation systems, feminism as one of the many women's movements in the world and literature as one of the manifestations of the poetic function of language among many others. One among others; one, among others. Perhaps in this way the knowledge and manifestations of the western tradition will no longer be used as synonyms for universal knowledge, a supposed universal knowledge that contrasts with the other manifestations that are accused of locality. All knowledge, including western knowledge, is local, since it is located in their specific historical, social and cultural circumstances and each one responds to the needs and experiences of the societies that developed them. Canceling the validation when naming can be a good start to try to decipher the codes that help to transit between different traditions and we can, perhaps, from different places, ask ourselves what tools we have from multiple traditions to face everything that pandemic brings in the very various aspects of human existence. Diverse tools to try to understand this dense situation in which we now find ourselves. Multiple eyes for a better reading of the world.
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