Non dialogue of Myths: dialogue of Myths: Non

Non-dialogue of Myths:
NonAmazonian Indians / Sustainability /
Science / Development
p
Ernesto F. Ráez
Ráezá -Luna
Environmental Sustainability Centre
Cayetano
y
Heredia Peruvian University
y
ICSS 2, Roma, 24 June 2010
Plan of this talk
„
Local impacts of global change in the Amazon Basin
• Not one, but many changes
„
„
Ethnic resistance,
resistance world order
order, and modern
technology
Identity crises or recreation of identities?
• Not one, but many and different indigenous peoples
• Technology and identity
• Not one, but
b many identities
d
((indigeneities)
d
)
„
The nonnon-dialogue of myths
• Not one,
one but many myths
„
The public (post
(post--normal, undisciplined) scientist
• An invitation to celebrate diversity
Where I come from...
Not one,
one but many changes
„
Glob li tion
Globalization
• Technological: Digital information, tele
tele-communications, W medicine, Bio
Bio--tech
• Global capitalism
„
Mega--booms and Mega
Mega
Mega--bubbles
• Global,
Gl b l hegemonic,
h
i culture
lt
off consumption
ti
„
„
„
„
Crisis of non
non--industrial and rural ways of life (“under
(“under-developed / non
non--developed / developing”)
Crisis of alternative thinking (left, feminism, etc.)
Global warming or Climate change
Biodiversity crises (not one
one, but many)
• Forests, oceans (fisheries), freshwater ecosys.
Global changes happen locally
((not out there,, but right
g here))
They have an impact on real
people
l in
i reall places,
l
and
d th
they are
of a hybrid condition:
social&ecological
Worst Amazon drought in 39 years
Brazil
Bolivia
Perú
Katrina
CLIMATIC EXTREMES
(August 2005)
Rio Branco ((Acre,, Brazil):
) 21-Sep-2005
p
“Children play in a little park, wearing masks to protect themselves from
smoke caused by burns in the Amazon region”
Ethnic resistance, world order, and
modern
d
technology
h l
„
Indigenous peoples are very actively
g the current world order and
using
modern technology to strengthen
their struggle for recognition and
survival.
• Access
A
tto Northen
N th
Hemisphere
H
i h
media,
di
US and W European governments, to
i fl
influence
governments
t in
i the
th South.
S th
• Cell phones, Internet, GIS, airplanes.
A GIS simulation of the
flood that would be
caused by the
Pakitzapango dam, over
Asháninka Indian
t it
territory.
Map produced by a
consulting firm that
belongs to the Peruvian
Jungle Indigenous
Proffesionals and
Technicians Association.
SOME indigenous
communities
iti and
d
indigenous leaders are
involved in illegal gold
mining either directly or
mining,
by inviting miners to their
territory.
ON THE OTHER
HAND...
The ever-increasing
price of gold, fuelled
b global
by
l b l economic
i
uncertainty. has
provoked a new gold
rush in the Peruvian
Amazon.
Source: Maria Stenzel, National Geographic Magazine
Where is the noble savage?
„
Sil io Funtowicz’s
Silvio
F nto i ’ question:
q e tion
• What are the practical contradictions of
sustainability facing Amazonian Indians in their
interaction with modern/Western science and
technology?
„
Two related questions:
• How much modern technology can Amazonian
Indians assimilate before they
y themselves
assimilate, and (culturally) disappear?
• How much modern technology can be
appropriated by non
non--industrial,
industrial rural societies
societies,
without losing the sustainable links to their land
and natural resources that guaranteed their
cultural (and biological) survival?
Technology has hidden risks and
costs, it is valuevalue-andand-politically
laden Modern technology forces
laden.
the loosening
g of traditional cultural
constraints; it creates new conflicts,
political
liti l rearrangements
t and
d shifts
hift
of loyalty and power within the
indigenous societies.
The noble savage has never been
so mythical.
Technology as magic / Science as
myth
„
Most of us, including indigenous people, use
technology unknowingly, we buy the end
product, but do not understand the
underlying science and history, nor
consequences.
• If technology is magic, then science is a myth.
• If the future is here, and it is a technological
utopia, no need to worry for the future, and
sustainability
t i bilit iis iirrelevant
l
t tto our survival.
i l
„
The oil spill is in the news, but the plasma TV set is in
our bedroom... Which one is MORE REAL? Which one we
CONTROL?
Non--dialogue of myths
Non
„
The myths:
m th
• The noble savage
• Science,
Science and a sciencescience-based world
• Sustainability (especially, romanticized
tradition)
• Development (as a new gospell that justifies
material and ideological domination)
„
Uncritical use of myths into discourse
denies diversity of the human experience
and the possibility of a different world.
• Mixing them creates new hybrid monsters, like
linguistic GMOs.
The postpost-normal and undisciplined
(abnormal?) scientist
„
P bli science:
Public
i
• Scientific (or just plainly truthful)
information for local peoples and citizens
in general, to help them cope with global
changes,
h
within
ithi th
the context
t t off concrete
t
challenges and debates.
• Inspired
I
i d iin the
th human
h
right
i ht tto know.
k
• Inspired by the value of diversity.
• Discipline becomes a non
non--issue
„
My own take: Strongly informed by ecology
(the science of consequences) and political
ecology.
Myth of the noble savant
„
„
How much political culture can scientists
assimilate before we ourselves assimilate,
and lose our own irreplaceable scientific
perspectiveS?
How much can we mix our scientific
perspectiveS
p
p
with other p
perspectives,
p
before the knowledge that we contribute
becomes totally useless for our own high
highg hoped objectives of a sustainable and fair
society?
The Utría Hunting Project
„
General data:
•
•
•
•
„
„
„
Colombian
C
l
bi
Ch
Chocó
ó ((rainforest),
i f
t) 19901990-1996.
1996
Led by Heidi Rubio, Fund. Natura
Utría National Park / Embera Indian territory
Impact of subsistence hunting on wildlife
Scientists p
proposed:
p
Wildlife refuges,
g , hunting
g
bans, domestic fowl
Indians proposed: appease powerful
shaman,
h
who
h hid the
th animals,
i
l angry att
hunters’ lack of selfself-restraint.
SOLUTION: Both responses were
implemented, project successful and
sustainable.
• They called the process a “dialogue of
knowledges”.
Let’s pretend that I have
Conclusions...
„
„
„
„
Identity (indigenous
Identit
(indigeno
o
or scientific)
ientifi ) subject
bje t to
continous change, a moving target both for
the outsider and the insider.
Many identities are possible within any one
larger
g identity;
y this produces
p
incoherence,
but also surprise, discovery, and innovation
(good for survival).
Awareness of the historical
historical, political
political, and
diverse nature of identity is an imperative.
People of different identities can build
sustainable futures, by “suspending” or
“undisciplining” their identities and engaging
in criticall d
dialogue.
l
This
h will
ll trnasform
f
the
h
identiies of those involved.
[email protected]